#the show didn’t want to explore the idea of Philip being an outsider in his own town and forced to change so I will | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

secretstanner · 4 years

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hold me in your arms, take the pain away

Chapter one Pairing: Dan Howell/ Phil Lester

Rating: Not yet rated

Tags: AU Circus, Strangers to Lovers, Impiled Character Death, Angst With Happy Ending, Slow Burn. Character death is NOT main character. Summary: Phil Lester is stuck working for his father’s newspaper, when given an assignment; He must write an article about the first circus to return to Manchester in over 10 years.

He arrives at the circus expecting to be reminded of childhood memories. It turns out to be so much more than that when he meets Dan Howell.

I posted the first and only chapter to this back in late 2018 but my mental health stopped me from posting. I really think this can be better than the idea I had over a year ago. Chapter two will be posted next week

Word count: 3k

AO3

He was sat at his typewriter, staring blankly at the keys beneath his fingertips. What was he writing about again? He couldn't remember, and he certainly did not care. His foot tapped impatiently as he thought about how he came to be stuck in this unwanted job. It was all because of one person. His father.

Phil was shaken out of his thoughts when a pair of legs appeared, standing in front of his desk. They belonged to his boss, Mr Johnson. He was a short, fat man, balding with prominent wrinkles adorning his face, caused by stress at the age of fifty-three. The buttons of his crinkled white shirt strained against the incredible amounts of fat around his once slim belly.

Phil didn’t even have time to greet him before a hand came slamming down on top of his hardwood desk. There, in his cigarette stained fingers, was a large poster screwed up in a tight fist, digits curled around the paper with such a forceful grip that made it look like the paper would tear at any moment. It was way too damaged to go back to its original form, as the sheet was ruined and almost void of any colour it once had. It was now ripped and curled in on itself because of rain and intense sunlight.

He strained his eyes harshly to properly read what the poster once said. The Wonder Requiem Cirque. A circus? Why was Mr Johnson bringing him this poster?

He still remembered the first time he stepped foot in a circus. It was better than his imagination could have ever led him to believe. An enormous red and gold striped tent fixed to the once muddy field, now brought to life with twinkling light and unique performers, greeting young children as they ran inside.

That was the first and last time he had ever been to one. He couldn’t remember much of that afternoon, but he held on to any broken memories that he had yet to fully piece together. It was one of the best days of his young life. He never did much other than attend school and his father's workplace, so something as magical as a circus coming to the city was more than his young brain could fathom.

Circus performers were given a bad reputation after the incident that happened 12 years ago. It shocked most of the city and left the performers cast away; some even branded them as freaks. Whispers were heard every now and again of them being in nearby towns but none had dared to come back to Manchester.

Even with that being over 10 years ago, he couldn’t help but still feel like that same little boy who once thought how incredible it would be to travel all round the world in a circus. Not that he had talent good enough that people would pay to see him. No, he was way too clumsy for anything that would need to gain attraction.

No matter how old he grew, it would always be a distant dream that stayed in the back of his mind. He often wrote fiction about traveling to places like The United States. But that was only fiction, never to become a reality.

Realising he hadn’t spoken yet, he cleared his throat and said, “A circus, sir?”

With his heart beating at a fast pace, he tried to hide his excitement. Mr Johnson moved his face, so it was merely inches away from Phil’s until he was leaning

across the desk. His heavy stature caused the table to creak when he placed both of his hands on the hardwood, as it struggled to hold his weight.

“Yes, Philip, the circus freaks are back!”

‘Freaks’? Why did that word sting like someone took a lit cigarette and pressed it to his bare flesh? Was it because he felt that word applied to him?

As a child, he would write stories about running away to the circus and almost did at one point in his life. He didn’t want what his father planned for him; to get a job at his father’s newspaper company, marry a beautiful young woman, and start a family. Even at 9 years old, Phil knew he couldn’t let that happen, well, not yet at least. He wanted to explore and as a boy, running away was the only solution his mind could conjure. Now at the age 24, he knew the best he could do was put off marrying as long as possible and if that meant doing what he was told, Phil would do it.

How could Phil respond to Mr Johnson’s words? What did he need from him? Phil just stared at him, trying to not indicate that those words affected him.

Mr Johnson finally spoke once again. “Do you know how much attention this will bring to the city, Philip? It’s been years, and we are the first to know about this. I looked all around town and didn’t find a single flier. We need to contact them before any of the other local news outlets get a hold of this.”

All Mr Johnson cared about was money and being the first to write an article about this would be the talk of Manchester.

He knew he had to ask. “What exactly do you want to contact them about? To give an interview?” Mr Johnson shrugged. Phil let out a small sigh “Who are you going to get to write about it, sir?”

Phil didn’t think for a second that he would be given this assignment. He was never the one given the interesting topics; he would always be given the pages towards the back of the newspaper, only ever given mundane activities to write about. Phil was sure no one cared to ever read it - except for his mother, of course.

“You will. Roger doesn’t have the—the same way with people like you do. You could get as much behind-the-scenes information as possible. People trust you, Philip. You’re odd, people take trust in that. They won’t be worried about what they tell you.”

He was right. Phil was so odd that no one would have ever seen Phil as a threat. He was tall and slim, with shaggy black hair he slicked back with gel and small round frames that sat at the bridge of his slightly beaked nose. No one would ever find him intimidating. He was good with people and very well liked at university. He knew people found him credible.

“What is it that you need me to report on?”

Mr Johnson smiled, yellow stained teeth showing as he spoke, “I want you to find out about the death of the performer. See if they knew anything about the circus it happened in, where are the people who worked there? I’m sure they heard about it, their kind must have been aware for none to have come here, until now that is.”

“What makes you think they would even tell us any information? They won’t agree to talking to a newspaper.”

“Like I said Philip, they trust you. Make friends with the carnies if you have to. We’ll make them an offer they can’t refuse. No one says no to free publicity.”

Phil really didn’t want to do this. He didn’t want to trick these performers into giving information and then have to write about It. He knew he had to do this. If Mr Johnson spoke to his father, Phil knew that it would only cause trouble. Phil really did the bare minimum, only being employed because his father had a say in him being there. He didn’t want to cause his father any trouble.

Phil straightened up directing his body to face Mr Johnson. He had to pretend he wanted to write this article. Phil let out an unsure breath and said, “When do I start?”

————————————————————————

Dan felt a warm breeze caressing his bare arms. As he made his way outside, he noticed a torn envelope by the trailer door that hovered over the freshly cut lawn.

“What you got there, Dan?” He looked up to see the petite figure of a young female standing a foot away. He held up his hand trying to block out the sunlight beams that blocked his vision.

The girl was beautiful; she possessed intense coffee coloured eyes, heart-shaped lips and thick waves of chocolate hair. It was Hazel, his best friend he’d known since he was barely 5 years old. Her hair was pulled into a neat ponytail tied with a light red ribbon, matching the rouge on her cheeks. However, a few of her locks escaped their confinements and lay sprawled across her forehead. She looked just like Dan, people would often mistake them for twins when they were younger and at the time, they played up to the deceiving act.

“Hey, Hazy. I don’t know, I found it just outside my door. Vincent must have left it there. It was opened when I found it.”

Hazel moved closer to Dan and sat next to him, blocking the entrance to his trailer. “Why don’t you read it?” She questioned, her eyes flicking from Dan to the ripped envelope.

Dan quickly bumped shoulders with her. “I was just about to, you know, right before you came and distracted me.” He said with a playful grin.

Hazel swatted Dan’s arm. “Just open it, Stupid bugger!”

Dan let out a howl of laughter. “Oh, is there really any need for name-calling?” Hazel just gave him an unimpressed look. “Fine, fine, I’m opening it now.”

100 York road,

Manchester,

MA1 4HH

Vincent. P. James, The Wonder Requiem Cirque

I’m writing from Manchester’s local newspaper, The Lester Standard. We heard news of your arrival to Manchester and thought it would be interesting to interview some of your circus folk for an article. As you are probably aware, there has not been such an attraction in the city for many years. Our establishment could gain you a lot of publicity, that is, if you allowed it, as we are one of the top news outlets.

I will send Mr. Lester, son of the founder of The Lester Standard and our best writer. We can assure you that this young man will be nothing but well-behaved. I would have him shadow and interview your performers to get a behind the scenes look at how carnie folk live. I have left the address for The Lester Standard if you wish to reply.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Mr Johnson

Hazel turned to meet Dan’s eyes. “What do you think?”

Dan didn’t know how to respond. He didn’t want someone to demand questions about their way of life.

“I--I think if this is what Vincent wants, then we should do as he pleases. I’m sure he is aware of all the things that may go wrong. But this Mr Johnson from the letter is right. Publicity, free publicity is what we need now more than before. We have barely gotten by for the past few years, we need this.”

Hazel shot him a sympathetic smile. “Are you going to go find him?”

Dan placed the sheet of paper back in the envelope. “Yes, I need to know what he needs from me. There must be something if he left this at my door.”

She stood to move away, but not before turning back to Dan. “Come find me later?”

He gave her a reassuring nod and Hazel bashfully placed her petite hand on Dan’s cheek, giving a quick peck to his lips before she hurried away.

Dan set out on finding Vincent, who had known him since the day he was born. Vincent was younger then, his head full of tawny locks was now left with sparse silver specks that no longer covered his scalp. The once gorgeous showman was now replaced with the 60-year-old man old enough to be a grandfather. He was exactly that for many runaways he housed over the years, asking for nothing, not even a penny and giving everything he could. Maybe that’s why everything they had was falling apart. It was the reason they had ended up in Manchester.

Dan soon stood in the small dining tent. It was close to noon, maybe he would have luck finding him. As he was searching, he spotted Dorothy. She looked a lot like Hazel, being her mother and all, but she didn’t hold the same youthful appearance as her daughter did. He spoke as he made his way over to her. “Dee! Have you seen Vincent?”

“Sweetie,” She took Dan’s face in her hands, small fingers running across his stained pink cheeks. She kissed his forehead gently and answered his question when she saw the impatient look on his face. “Yes, not so long ago I saw him next to his trailer. Is there something you need, Mon Cher?”

“I found a letter he left me this morning, I just wanted to ask him about it.”

“Ah well you better find him, he said he was heading into town, so go quick before he’s gone.”

Dan thanked her by kissing her hand and ran towards Vincent’s trailer.

In the distance he saw Vincent, dressed in his best day clothes–definitely not something he’d wear everyday working around the tents. They didn’t dress up unless they had a show. His blazer and trousers made from dark brown wool that looked like it would scratch the naked skin underneath, causing minor grazes. The clothes were a little outdated - they looked as if they were about to burst trying to stretch across his oversized frame.

“Vincent,” Dan yelled, hoping that he was heard from across the field. He was in luck when he saw him turn to see Dan running towards him. Dan gasped from running at such a rapid speed. Once he was a few feet away from Vincent, he huffed a laugh while bending over to catch himself from collapsing.

Vincent chuckled, eyes forming deep creases above his cheeks. “Don’t go killing yourself, Dan.”

Dan stood up straight once he was sure he would not faint. “Are you heading out?” He remembered Dorothy said he was going into town, he assumed it was to give Mr Johnson an answer.

“I was, did you by any chance read the letter I left for you?”

“I did. Why did you need me to read it?” He assumed it was because he needed to be interviewed. Dan wasn’t a performer anymore, but he knew a lot about how everything worked around here; he had a lot of information that Mr Lester would need.

“Well, they’re sending Mr Lester over to write a report and I need someone to help him. As you know, once everyone finds out about him being here to write for a newspaper, they won’t be very forthcoming with him.” He paused to clear his throat. Dan could see the stress taking over his body: it aged him prematurely. “We need this, Dan. I don’t know how much longer we can last; this article can bring in crowds of unimaginable amounts of people. Ones we haven’t ever had or at least since before…”

Dan remembered they once had the most popular circus that was known by all towns and cities around. People would flock for miles just to see one performer in particular. They needed something to help them before it was too late.

“I’ll do it for you—I’ll do it for us.”

Vincent’s shoulders dropped dramatically like every ounce of stress had flowed from his body out into the hot air. “Thank you, Dan. Your parents would be so proud of you, you know that, don’t you?”

Dan knew that, and it was the only thing that kept him going, kept him here with this makeshift family they all created together. He couldn’t help but smile, no matter what had happened in his past. At 19 years of age his life was only just beginning.

“Yeah, I know, how could they not be? I mean, look at me.” He gestured to himself, stood wearing the darkest pair of slacks he could find, brown coloured braces and a white tee.

“I’m the gorgeous piece of arse that brings the crowds flocking in.” Dan couldn’t help a smirk at the sarcasm that dripped from his tongue. He was rarely seen by any of the audience. He preferred to stay in the background these days, helping the acts get ready for the show and bringing them water once they finished performing.

Vincent’s face had turned red from holding his breath. He finally released a snort of laughter that he was holding in. “Yes, Dan, what would any of us do without—your arse? And really, it seems like Hazel is the only person you can get to flock to you.”

Dan let out a nervous laugh before sighing. He reached up to smooth the back of his neck. “Ha, yes, you aren't wrong there.”

Vincent rolled his eyes at Dan’s uneasiness. “Oh now, a beautiful girl that’s been falling for you since you weren’t even teens, sounds just the worst there, Dan.”

“Sorry, I’m just having an off day, think the sun’s getting to me.”

Dan looked up to see Vincent’s grin, giving him a knowing look. He was a kind and gentle person, Dan knew he meant nothing by it. “Yes, I know. I will actually head off now. I want to get there and back before dark. Do you think you could tell some of them? I don’t want to leave it too long before Mr Writer Man is here.” He said as he puffed out his chest to imitate what this reporter might be like.

“I’ll go find Hazel, I promised I’d meet her as soon as I finished talking to you.”

Vincent took Dan in a warm embrace before turning away and opened his car door. It was about an hour drive to the city, so he needed to leave now.

#phanfic #phanfiction #hold me in your arms #my fic

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thepilotanon · 5 years

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welcome home.

First attempt with Flip Zimmerman! Still not too sure if I got the characters well put out, but I had fun with this little snippet idea of introducing someone special for our favorite Jewish Officer, so I hope you will, too! Please let me know if you liked it - I want to try working with Flip and the {reader} in future ideas. This is specially dedicated to Nic, who had to deal with me sputtering ideas and having to wait 150 years for me to finally post.

warning: medical condition/epilepsy, language (post-film)

Ron Stallworth has never been to Flip Zimmerman’s house.

They’ve met at different houses, sure, and Flip has stopped by his place once or twice for a few minutes to drop something off or pick something up, or for work. However, there has never been a time where Ron had the chance to see where his friend and colleague lived naturally (an apartment, a story house? Perhaps he still lived with his parents, for all he knows), and see where he slept or did whatever… It was never much of a mission for him to see where Flip lived, although he has thought about it sometimes.

Although, today may just be his lucky day. Flip has been gone for two days from work.

The first day Flip was gone, Ron didn’t think much of it to ask Jimmy or anyone where he was. It was pretty normal for Flip to unexpectedly call in once in a great while, and he’d be back the very next day. The second day, it was weird. No call in or announcement from anyone at work to the little collection of desks in the CSPD to Flip’s empty area, and Ron was left with confused by how everyone else took it so casual. As far as Ron knew, Flip would only take one day off yesterday and return.

Jimmy dropped a sealed manila envelope to Ron’s desk, making the first black CS detective look up to see the older man yawn from his overnight shift.

“I need you to drop this off to Flip’s place for me. I’m heading out,” Jimmy drawled. “Just some paperwork that he needs to check over and sign off before being filed. Nothing too serious, but I want him to have it, incase he’s not in tomorrow.”

“You can’t give it to him?” Ron asked with a raised brow.

“I have an appointment I need to get to in fifteen minutes, and it’s suppose to last for a few more hours,” he explained. “I’ll stop by later to pick them up, but I’m running behind already. I’ll owe you, Ron.”

Ron looked at the envelope before glancing back to Jimmy. “I don’t where he lives, brother.”

With Flip’s address scribbled on a scrap piece of paper and Ron’s exploration to a quiet, suburban neighborhood he hasn’t been to in Colorado Springs. Trimmed lawns and bushes aligned on yards, some homes with picket fences and some with gardens, Ron parked in front of the one story house with a regular burnt brown colored paint job and brick decor along the front window. Double checking to match the numbers and street names to the sloppy handwriting, Detective Ron left the safety of his car and crossed the sidewalk to enter the driveway, where the familiar tan Nova was parked outside the garage. A part of it made Ron feel better, being able to recognize Flip’s vehicle to know he’s at the right place.

Approaching the white door, Ron took a deep breath before knocking on the frame. He wasn’t too sure how to explain to Flip about being on his doorstep, much less being given rather private information about where he lived. Ron knew that Flip was very private about his personal life, and he could understand if his friend would get irritated with the explanation of Jimmy’s poor time management skills. But knowing how his tall and burly coworker is, Ron could only hope that he wasn’t in a grouchy mood.

The deadbolt of the door clicked open and the doorknob turned. Ron was surprised to see instead of a tall, white and usually grouchy man, a small woman stuck her head in view of the opened screen door to look his way.

“Hello,” she said, her voice polite and casual, yet her eyes read the usual curious stare Ron was used to receiving from plenty of white folk. “Can I help you?”

She was wearing a jean jacket that was four times too large for her size, and wearing a pajama button up set with rosy colors and dark lines for the print underneath. By mere appearance within the few seconds, Ron figured she wasn’t expecting company over and didn’t want to look too indecent to whoever was at the door. Still, Ron couldn’t understand why there was a woman inside Flip’s house - never had he heard or would have guessed Flip was dating, much less interesting in having a relationship or one night stands. She didn’t look the type to be into that sort of thing with men, unless Flip has somehow charmed her with a few drinks and charming words Ron has taught him.

Her head tilting to the side, a small, amused smile on her lips, she cleared her throat. “I’m sorry but, if you intend on selling something or wish to speak to me about your church, I’m afraid I’m not too interested, or have the spare time at the moment,” she said, catching him off guard as she prepared to close the door on him. “However, I know for a fact that my neighbor next door would like to be entertained with some company with whatever you -”

“No! Uh, no, nah, I’m not - I’m not selling you anything,” Ron interrupted in time, scrambling to reach into his coat to pull out the thick pack sealed in a yellow envelope to show her. “I’m actually looking for Philip. Phil - Flip Zimmerman? Does he, uh, live here? His car is parked right out here…”

Looking at the yellow package briefly, the woman’s lips fell to a thin line. “May I ask who you are? What do you want with Flip?”

Digging into his pocket, Ron pulled out his badge in a hurry. “My name is Detective Ron Stallworth, and I work for the Colorado Springs Police D -!”

“You’re rookie!”

The woman’s squeal surprised him, as well as the bright smile on her face before she used the sleeve of the jacket to cover, slightly embarrassed by the volume. “Excuse me, I’m so sorry,” she giggled with embarrassment. Taking a moment to collect herself, she propped the door open for him as an invitation. “I’m so sorry! Come on in, I didn’t mean to be so rude to you, Mr. Stallworth.”

“R-Ron is just fine,” he responded carefully, a bit cautious to step through the front door until he saw the woman leave the door to go further into the house, causing him to hesitate and eventually walk into the house and close the door behind him.

“Flip just had to step out for a few minutes, but he should be back in any second,” the woman explained, her voice coming from the corner of what Flip assumed was the kitchen by the nicely arranged dining table with a china cabinet. The main living room of the home was comfortable; a long couch beside a oval coffee table, a lounge chair and a TV to the side against the wall, the carpet draped with a nicely printed pattern underneath. A clock ticked away on the wall and a few assorted pictures in frames were hung accordingly, and Ron found a coat rack beside him and shoes placed neatly on the ground of the foyer of the front door.

Taking off his shoes and awkwardly placing them along the other pairs, Ron carefully entered the living room with the packet still in his hands, hearing the woman tinker around in the kitchen. “Would you like anything to drink, Ron?” she asked brightly. “There is water, milk, some lemonade or hard cider… Oh, I just made a new iced tea, if you like lemon and honey flavoring? I know Jimmy hates anything with honey, but I’m not sure about you...”

Ron made his way to the dining table, seeing the mysterious lady gesturing him to sit down and relax. He did so, sitting at the far end facing her way, setting the envelope infront of him. “I’m alright, thanks.”

“Again, I’m sorry for mistaking you for a salesman,” she repeated herself, coming over to the table with a glass of water and sitting at the other end. “I knew Jimmy was suppose to be bringing something for Flip over, but I was expecting that to be around dinner. He likes to join for our meals - Oh! Will you be joining as well?”

“I - I’m -?”

Behind the unknown woman, the hidden back door of the kitchen cracked open and a familiar voice rang in. “Alice?” Flip’s voice caught both of their attention, and the woman stood up from her chair. “Alice, baby. I’m home, doll face.”

“Welcome home!” the woman, Alice, sang with a smile in her voice, turning to face him as he shrugged off his wool parka. “Flip, you have a visitor waiting for you.”

“Oh, Jimmy’s here? I thought he’d here later.” Flip approached the dining table, allowing Alice to stick her arms under his own and hug him. Seeing the visitor sitting on the other end of the dining table, the tall detective froze in place within Alice’s embrace as he stared at Ron. The awkward guest raised his hand and waved a couple fingers towards him, seeming to form a sort of amused grin.

Oh, a part of Ron Stallworth wanted to be cocky so bad at this moment.

“Seems like you need to introduce me to your lady friend, brother,” Ron chuckled airily, seeing how Alice perked and looked over her shoulder to him. It took a second for Ron to realize how bright the woman’s eyes were, almost like a batch of diamonds twinkling in the sun with true honesty. She was truly happy to have Ron present in their home as a guest, and it was surprising to him. Those eyes were truly bright and friendly, yet Ron felt nervous for himself for the rather upfront and kind white woman - just the fact that he wasn’t used to it this behavior on the regular.

Sighing, Flip raised a hand to rest on the woman’s shoulder. Alice moved to be at his side and kept her arms around him, smiling gently up to him as the dark haired man scratched the back of his neck.

“Alice, this is Ron…”

“The rookie you’ve told me about!” Alice interjected with a smile, and Flip cringed a bit at the reveal that he spoke of Ron beforehand and the black man showed it with a toothy grin. Alice leaned her head against Flip’s chest and looked to Ron brightly. “Flip has spoken so much about you, Ron! I’ve been asking him to bring you along for dinner, but you’ve seen how he is with having fun with friends after work. He tends to be so finicky.”

“And, Ron...rookie,” Flip frowned, glaring disapprovingly at the grinning detective, “this is Alice...my wife.”

Ron eventually agreed to try the iced tea.

It was funny for him to see Flip in a more domestic-mood, as he would put it into words. Seeing him kiss the woman’s forehead gently and seem to ask her something private under his breath made Ron Stallworth tilt his head from the comfortable couch. Alice only smiled and shook her head before asking him if he would like anything to drink before going to join his partner in the living room; Flip sighed and carefully gestured her to go on with whatever she was doing prior to Ron knocking on the door. Ron watched Flip stare intently after his wife as she nodded and left into the hallway, seeming to go to a different room and close the door.

Dropping down to sit in the other couch across the little coffee table, facing Ron, Flip eyed the thick, yellow envelope sitting between them. “I’m guessing Jimmy sent you because he was running late for an appointment, or something,” Flip grumbled with a sort of accusing tone.

“Yeah, something like that.”

Leaning back against the couch, resting his arm on the back ledge of it and checking into the small hallway where the soft humming of Alice’s voice echoed, Flip exhaled with puffed cheeks and rubbed his nose. “I figured you’d come to find out someday, but not actually have you come to my house to know I’m married, much less where I live. I would have expected you to meet Alice at the station, or something. She brings cookies or brownies for everyone sometimes.”

“It’s fine, it ain’t like I’ll be knocking on your door and ask if you want to have a sleepover. Or, you know, be like Jimmy and join you guys for dinner,” Ron tried to lighten the mood, seeing Flip’s brows raise and snort with amusement. “Your lady is...pretty special. Not used to white people smiling at me when I knock on their door or ask if I would stay for something to eat.”

Flip chuckled under his breath; with the guest drinking the iced tea (which his wife usually keeps to herself and her husband, or special events), and Ron’s side of the story of the situation when he knocked on the door, Flip wasn’t all that surprised by his companion’s reaction to it all. “Yeah, she’s special alright,” he said rather fondly, not realizing that Ron could see how his ears were burning a bit pink at the tips. “She’s definitely not like other women you’d meet around here.”

As if on cue, Alice strolled behind her husband, now wearing a more comfortable cream colored cardigan instead of the jacket - which turned out to be Flip’s - and crossed the way to return to the kitchen. Flip didn’t miss his chance to drop his head back to catch a glimpse of her giving them both a polite smile before disappearing. Ron himself didn’t hesitate to try and offer a small, half-grin back to her out of instinct before dropping his gaze back to his comrade.

“Careful not to drool there, Flip,” Ron teased, making the man clear his throat and sit back straight. “Still never took you as a married man, though. Don’t mean any disrespect, but…you do always say your business if your fucking business.”

“It’s fine.” Flip swiped his nose. “I don’t usually wear my wedding ring or really talk about...domestic things. Reasons...but, most people at the precinct already met Alice before you showed up.”

“Well, now that we’ve crossed that bridge, expect me to be asking questions.”

The detective immediately narrowed his eyes back, a frown visible under his mustache and beard. “I’d rather you did not -”

“Hey, Alice, mind if I asked where you and my buddy Flip met?” Ron asked, the volume of his voice loud enough for the woman to hear. Seeing her pop her head from around the corner, her smile seeming to never have left her lips, Ron couldn’t resist but grin back just as cheeky. He knew she could tell he was teasing her husband, and she was more than willing to join in.

“We met in high school -” Alice answered, ignoring Flip’s loud groan of displeasure as she approached his back, hands resting on his broad shoulders. “- and we both had the same English class together. Been together since then.”

“Oh, ain’t that sweet!” Ron snickered and Alice simply nodded while Flip grew more grouchy.

Flip’s wife hummed and combed her fingers through his neat hair affectionately. “Get a few drinks in this big guy, and he’ll tell you the embarrassing attempts to catch my attention back in history class,” she told Ron lightly before kissing the top of Flip’s head, ignoring how her husband grumbled under his breath with flushed cheeks.

“Ron,” Alice spoke up, catching the guest’s attention while Flip dropped his head back to look up, “do you mind if I make pot pie for dinner? If you’re staying, that is - no pressure. It’s chicken, too, and you can bring some leftovers home!”

“He doesn’t need -” Flip was about to further tease Ron until Alice shushed him and put her hand over his mouth.

“Don’t listen to him, Ron,” Alice told him kindly, while pinching her husband’s nose in rhythm with her other hand. “In this house, this is my domain, and I’m more than happy to share leftovers with friends of Flip. He just doesn’t like sharing my cooking with other people. Likes to think it makes men fall for me and gets jealous when guys ask for more.”

“Well, they say a way to a man’s heart is through his stomach,” Ron shrugged with a grin. “I think I’ll stay for dinner, since ya offered so sweetly, ma’am, if it’s not too much trouble. Seeing Flip in his natural habitat is very interesting.”

“Very different, huh,” Alice snickered while lightly scritching Flip’s scalp lightly before patting his shoulder. “If you guys need anything, let me know. I’m going to start dinner!”

“If you need anything...” Flip spoke pointedly back to her, his smile soft but his eyes serious. Ron didn’t miss the way how Flip’s knee started bouncing with the silence between them, only for Alice to poke the tip of his nose.

“Just call!” she nodded. “I know, I know. You two don’t cause too much trouble.” Alice turned around and went back to the kitchen, humming a tune once more as the added noises of pots and pans clattered and the sink turning on.

Ron watched Flip carefully, noticing how the leg he was bouncing before was now rocking side-to-side just a bit. Scratching behind his ear, Ron bit back his smirk. “Sure are pretty protective of her, huh. Don’t get so stuffed up, I’m not going to try and take your lady, Flipper,” he chuckled when Flip made a questionable grunt and looked over at him. “You’re not comfortable. If you really need me to leave, I can -”

“No, no. It’s fine,” Flip shook his head and waved a hand. “It’s not you, honestly. It’s just Alice, y’know, trying to keep an eye on her...”

The Detective blinked slowly and leaned back on his spot. “Is that why you weren’t at the station? She a wild card or she’s not feeling well lately?”

“She has a condition, is all. Called Epilepsy, where you get seizures and tremors you can’t control,” he explained as simple as possible. “She doesn’t get them too often, but she gets moments where they’re one after another and leaves her very sore and sick, so…

“Alice gets ‘em a few times a year, usually when she’s stressed from work or overly tired, so it’s nothing to worry about so much,” Flip shrugged carefully. “Sarge and Chief already know, so they get it if I have to take a few days off to keep an eye on her.”

“So Flip Zimmerman calls in sick to take care of his wife? Big, buff Flipper just wanted to take care of his sweet lady and leave me all alone at the precinct with Jimmy’s bad jokes and Harold’s snoring,” Ron rolled his eyes and shrugged. “Not a big deal to me, brother. Just glad you didn’t - I don’t know - get kidnapped and locked in a basement. It was nice to meet your wife, though. She’s a lot nicer than most white folk I meet, especially the ladies.”

“She’s like that. Lots of people like her.”

“I apologize for prying like that about you and your missus like that.” For him, Ron felt a little bit guilty. After meeting Alice and feeling an instant sense of respect and care for the woman, and now, knowing of her condition and Flip’s reason for staying home, he felt like he knew too much of their personal lives. He he was more than aware of how Flip preferred his life outside of work to just be his own: No Detectives, no cases, no undercover investigations…

“It’s fine. It might as well happen sooner or later.” Flip huffed before giving him a tired, but genuine half-grin. “I can already tell Alice likes ya. She’s going to be adding you to her baking goods list, so prepare to add on some pounds.”

As soon as the chicken pot pie engulfed the cozy home with delicious smells and was just being pulled out of the oven, Jimmy helped himself inside and sang his presence. Flip was probably more annoyed about the other man’s lack of knocking than anything else, yet Alice was just all laughs and grinning. As much as Flip refused to acknowledge the wonderful atmosphere of having company other and sharing a big dinner with friends, not having worry about work for a good hour or so with some beer, Alice knew her husband better. By the time Ron and Jimmy left with full bellies and tupperware full of leftovers, Alice found her tall man scrubbing the dirty dishes in her place after locking up the door.

“Go on and shower, baby doll,” he instructed her when she hugged him from behind and thanking him for taking over for cleanup duty. When she peeked under his strong arm, he wrapped his damp arm around her waist - making sure not to get soapy water all over her sweater - and kissed her forehead and down her face to her jaw.

“Are you sure you don’t need me to finish up? I can handle it,” she offered, nuzzling into his shoulder.

“Mm-mm, it’s alright. You were on your feet the whole time I was out running errands before making dinner, weren’t you...” he told her slowly, making Alice whine and refuse to meet his handsome, smart eyes. He heard her mumble about how she just wanted to fold the laundry and dust a bit under her breath. Flip chuckled and nipped lightly at her neck to tickle her into submission. It worked, feeling her melt against his chest while he reached to dry his large hands with the kitchen towel. “Just go get cleaned up and ready for bed. I’ll be there when I’m done out here, you did enough today, sweetheart.”

Alice sighed softly before agreeing with him. “Fine, okay. I’ll go to bed, but you better be there and not work on whatever the heck is in the envelope until tomorrow,” she warned him stubbornly.

“Anything my queen demands of me,” Flip returned before seeing her smile and reward him with a kiss. As soon as she turned around and prepared to make her way to the bathroom inside the master bedroom, Flip was able to slip a fun, teasing spank to her bottom with his dry hand. Alice couldn’t help herself but laugh at his playful attitude as she left the kitchen, knowing fully well that her husband’s eyes kept its gaze locked on her ass.

Changing her pajamas into a cute, blue silk button-ups (which she had a matching pair with her tall husband) after taking a careful shower, Alice brushed her hair accordingly to dry natural in the cool temperature of the bedroom after getting out as much water as possible. Lying back in bed with her head cushioned by her pillow, Alice carefully read her novel in the silence of the bedroom. It took her a moment to register the shift of weight from the other side, and she was about to move her legs to give Flip room until familiar hands grasped her legs to hold still, making her grin.

Lifting her book away to watch her husband crawl onto the bed, hovering over her, Alice couldn’t resist her snickers when he playfully growled. Each hand on either side of her head, his knees pressed with her legs in between, Flip had a naughty glint in his eye while she placed her book on the nightstand, saving her spot.

“Hi, big shot,” Alice greeted, although her breath was caught short when Flip suddenly crouched; dropping majority of his weight on top of her, his face burying into her chest while his hands drew themselves up and groped her breasts in his large hands. Alice chuckled at this action and tangled her fingers into his soft, curly hair.

“Hey, baby doll,” he responded with a relaxed exhale. Lifting his head, Flip rest his cheek against the swell of her breast and gave her his lovey-dovey gaze that made her feel warm all over underneath the blanket.

“Did you like dinner?”

His smile grew to a grin under his mustache. “I always love dinner, baby.”

“Even,” she sang while twirling a lock of his hair, “with the rookie finally meeting your lovely wife and both teased you a bit?”

Suddenly he groaned in annoyance, making Alice giggle when he rolled to bury his face back into her chest. “You’d think Jimmy would’ve given a call about sending Ron over,” he grouched, nuzzling between the fabric of the buttons to come in contact with her skin with the tip of his nose. “Just feel bad that you weren’t feelin’ the best to be meeting new people.”

“I don’t mind,” Alice hushed him, combing his hair with her hand while the other traced the lines of the pattern of his top with her fingertips. “I told you this morning, I feel a lot better today than yesterday. I’m happy to have met him, after nearly getting my husband caught by white supremacists once or twice while undercover.”

“Alice…”

“Ron Stallworth is obviously a very nice man, and I appreciate how much he puts himself into his work to make the world a better place. I can tell he has a good heart, a witty personality and a good future ahead of him at the precinct,” Alice listed off, unable to help herself from grinning when Flip sat up a bit. Feeling his fingers plucking the buttons apart, she snickered when he was able to get the top half of the buttons undone and began pressing kisses to the newly exposed skin of her collarbone and sternum. “If he can promise not to get my husband in danger to the point that he can’t come home, I think him and I will get along perfectly.”

“If only he knew how much danger he would be in, if it came to that,” Flip egged on affectionately, planting a soundly kiss to the tiny, tiny freckle that was often hidden with her numerous tops or bra. “If he knew just how dangerous you can be when you’re pissed off, he would wrap me in bubble wrap and put a helmet on my head every time I clock in.”

“You do have a preference for dangerous women, Philip Zimmerman, especially when they’re mad.”

“I can’t help it, especially when one of them had fire in her eyes and tapping her foot,” Flip listed off, rocking his hips side-to-side against her in a teasing manner. He kissed from her chest to up her neck, wriggling up to reach her face next. “There’s this one lady who looks particularly cute when she’s mad; when I instruct her to stay in bed, because she had a medical episode that made her very sore and sick afterwards, she bit me when I tried to kiss her.”

“Oh, no!” Alice gasped and covered her mouth in a fake dramatic surprise, all while her husband was just grinning in the midst of giving her kisses on her cheek and jaw. She huffed a laugh when he gingerly plucked her hand away and sealed her lips in a long, sweet kiss that made her sigh.

“Or, the time in high school when that same threw a basketball from the second floor at my head, because she wanted to say she loved me before my game -”

“I was trying to get your attention, I didn’t mean to hit your head!” she pouted, and Flip just cupped her face with his big hands and kissed her deeper, laughing against her mouth while she whined. “How long are you going to hold that against me?”

“As long as you hold against me for the time you found your underwear in my glovebox.”

“It was my cute pair that you knew I was looking for,” Alice grouched. “It was my favorite, too.”

Flip hummed a low chuckle against her, kissing her fake pout away before kissing the tip of her nose. Seeing her sneak her hand between them to yawn into her palm more politely, Flip couldn’t stop himself from giving her a careful look over. Timing the length of the yawn to the complexion of her face with a brush of his thumb against her cheek. When she was done, she rest the weight of her head on the pillow, taking a deep breath while her hands rest casually against his upper arms.

“How are you feeling now, baby doll?” he asked her gently. “You got up all by yourself today and seem to have a lot more energy than yesterday.”

She agreed with a nod and a soft, “A lot better.”

“Your shoulder doesn’t hurt as much, does it?” he asked next, his right hand coming to move to the collar of her sleeping top and gently push it aside. Under the thick fabric of her pajama shirt, the curve of her shoulder held a distinct bruise in a rather vertical angle. Pressing a very light kiss nearby, Flip was careful to look at the bruise. “You hit the corner wall pretty hard, didn’t ya?”

“I don’t particularly remember, but it’s alright. I’m a tough lady, I can handle it,” Alice said rather confident, making her husband smirk. “Have you met my husband? He’s a Detective and deals with plenty of bullshit on a daily, punches criminals and kicks ‘em in the balls; makes a badass bowl of cereal and glass of orange juice and give the best, hot and steamy sex with his big -”

“Hah!” Flip snorted before burying his face into her warm breasts, tickling her into a laughing fit together that shook their bed. When he blinked back his tears of joy and sniffed while lifting his head to look back to her, he found her cheeks bright red and basically glowing with her own amusement. “Yeah, yeah. You’re my tough, little lady and I do indeed have a big schlong, thank you for noticing after all these years.”

Alice pulled her cute smile, playing with that specific strand of hair that always dangled next to his brow, twirling it with her finger. “You’re welcome, big shot,” she sang softly, earning her to have him take her hand and kiss her wrist first, before kissing the simple wedding band on her finger. “Will you at least work on the papers tomorrow and stop by the precinct? I don’t want you to fall behind by missing three days to take care of me when I’m feeling better.”

“I’ll think about it,” he nodded, only to see her eyes narrow with a simple glance. “Tomorrow, I promise. I’ll do the work tomorrow, here at home, then I’ll think about stopping by. I’ll give ‘em a ring…”

“Thank you, sweetie,” Alice smiled and kissed him. “So, when are you gonna undress for me and get in bed? I’ve been fairly patient with having guests over to restrain from feeling your muscles and cuddling you.”

An amused snicker filled the bedroom when Flip made an unusual grunt and bounced himself up to his hands, causing the whole bed to jump with her in between to try and hide her laugh. She didn’t mind the silly tune of a poor attempt to sultry music as he locked eyes with her as he circled his hips and began unbuttoning his flannel. She knew he had no plans of being intimate with her - probably will need to wait a week, at least, for his poor anxiety playing ‘what-if’s - but he never fails to make her laugh to the point her belly aches to where she would need to curl against him and have him hold her close. Just him in his underwear and t-shirt, holding her with his big, warm hands and nuzzling her so affectionately that she just easily forgets her medical condition and the bruises on her shoulder and knees; how she aches after waking up in Flips arms and cries in apologies while he shook his head and kissed her clammy cheeks, whispering he’s going to call Chief’s desk and leave a message how he was going to stay home and take care of his wife. Nothing but the warmth of her man’s embrace and his calm, sweet voice helping her forget and heal once again.

I feel like domestic Flip Zimmerman would be very opposite to working Flip, and I certainly had fun with Ron and Alice teasing him in the middle. I hope you enjoyed and will let me know what you think!

#pilotanonwrites #flip zimmerman #flip zimmerman x reader #pilotanonblerb #oc/reader insert #reader insert #flips wife #Female reader #female reader insert

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pubtheatres1 · 4 years

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ONE GIANT LEAP Brockley Jack Theatre 2 – 27 July 2019 “That’s one small step for man…” Neil Armstrong INTERVIEW WITH WRITER & DIRECTOR OF ARROWS AND TRAPS THEATRE, ROSS MCGREGOR LPT: Hello Ross, We’re rather pleased to have another chat with you about your company, the award nominated Arrows & Traps but also wanted to grill you a little bit on your new writing, ONE GIANT LEAP. How long did it take you to write it? Hi there, how lovely to be asked. I have a somewhat unusual process in that I pitch the idea to the Jack, book the slot, design the artwork / poster, get the show on sale, start selling tickets and only then start writing the script. This is partly due to the quick turnaround of shows and my lack of time between, and also that we have to book these things quite far in advance as the Jack is a popular and sought-after space, but also because I have an issue with self-discipline, and so if I didn’t have a concrete deadline, I think I’d still be tinkering with Frankenstein, a show I wrote and produced in 2017. One Giant Leap is the first completely original piece that I’ve written without a source material, and it took me about two weeks to get onto paper. ONE GIANT LEAP is celebrating the fiftieth Anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing but it seems you have got your own spin on it. Could you tell us the story in nutshell? Yes absolutely. It’s a comic take on the greatest conspiracy in history. It centres on Edward Price, a producer of a failing 60’s sci-fi show called Moonsaber – which is basically a poor man’s Star Trek. Edward’s life has fallen into a rut, his wife has left him, he’s lost his house to the IRS, and Moonsaber has just been cancelled in its first season. All looks grim, until a representative to President Nixon comes to his door with a suitcase of money and a proposition. The Apollo 11 Moon Landing is four days away, but due to the moon being about a hundred degrees too hot for photographic film; they can get there, they just can’t film it. And what is a massive propaganda exercise without proof that you actually did it? So they ask Edward to fake the footage by any means possible, if he can do it, he can bring Moonsaber back to life for another season, if he fails – he loses everything. Where does the comedy come from? Mainly from the people that Edward employs in Moonsaber. They’re a ragtag bunch of actors, stage managers and technicians, and due to the show being cancelled – they’re falling apart at the seams – it’s down to Edward to keep it all together, to pull off the greatest lie in history, whilst trying to save his marriage, salvage his career, and keep the lies he’s telling intact. It’s a study of the creative industry, a satirical and loving homage to theatre. We’re not trying to say anything serious about whether the moon landing was or wasn’t real, but more provide a raucous night out at the theatre, and keep you laughing about it on the Overground home. Why is it important to offer a lighter comedy in theatre right now? I think, at times, theatre can take itself too seriously, and become too myopic about tackling the dark and dreadful issues that are affecting society – I’ve lost count of how many shows there are about Brexit playing right now – and whilst that’s great, and admirable - speaking for myself, after the last year I’m sick of the darkness, I’m bored by the constant stream of depressive updates about the rise of the Right, I can’t engage with it, the European elections gave a victory to nationalists, we gave a state visit to a racist, homelessness is at an all-time high, and we’re literally cooking the planet to death. There are sometimes when I just want a great night out and forget how scary the world seems right now – laughter is the best medicine – not as a retreat, but a reminder of the good in us, of the joy, of the light. As the company is repertory, you’ll be working with some actors you know very well. Did you have any of them in mind when you were writing the script? I certainly wrote two of the eight roles with long time company members Will Pinchin and Lucy Loannou in mind. And whilst yes, the roles are tailored to suit both of them - I did write the roles of Howard and Alchamy to stretch and challenge Will and Lucy, because I’d never seen them play characters like that. Will is nothing like Howard, and Lucy isn’t at all like Alchamy, but in way, they’re made for those roles, and for me, they’re perfect choices. I do like working with the same actors repeatedly, it is true, because you build up a short hand of technique and approach, but also you build up a trust. The actors in the company come in on day one, sort of knowing what to bring me, and what kind of vision I’ll probably have, since my style is something of a constant, but also I’m able to, as their director, cast them in roles that perhaps play against type, or test their flexibility and skillsets. I’m not an actor, but if I were, I’d hate to play the same roles every time, to only get the “intense one” or the “dopey one” or the “awkward one” – I’d want to think I could play anything that was thrown at me, and I think our rep system allows for experimentation and exploration. What has been the hardest part of the whole process to date? We’re only in the first week of rehearsal, so nothing too taxing thus far. Hands down, the hardest part of a comedy is when you’ve rehearsed it so much you no longer find it funny, at which point we need an audience. One Giant Leap hasn’t hit that point yet, obviously, but I think most comic work benefits from the response and energy an audience gives. Theatre can be electric when you have that to play off, but in terms of where we are – One Giant Leap’s greatest challenge is the analysing of why something is funny, and making sure it’s that way every time. It’s all about timing. For many years I laboured under the misapprehension that stand up comedy was just a funny person being funny with a microphone, that was until I saw Dylan Moran do the same set twice in the space of three weeks. He has a very casual, off the cuff, almost improvised way of performing, and I assumed that it was just his natural charisma and quick wit, until I saw the set the second time, only to find it was identical to the first. All the pauses, the stresses, the tangents, the quips, all of which was honed, polished and a work of precision. It was funny because he’d worked out the best way to get the laugh, every time, and that’s beyond art, it’s science, it’s music. Traditionally Arrows and Traps have produced a selection of brilliantly adapted classics, including Dracula, Frankenstein, Crime & Punishment and Anna Karenina. Have you got a soft spot for one of them? I loved the breathlessness and breadth of Anna Karenina, the precision and murk of Crime & Punishment, the thrill and gothicism of Dracula, and the humanity and pang of loss in Frankenstein. I think my favourite adaptation, if I had to pick one, is probably Frankenstein – but that’s purely subjective, and there was something about the biography of Mary Shelley, which we incorporated into the show, that really spoke to me – in the sense of a creator and a creation, a parent and child, a sinner and the terrible revenge. You’ve also got THE STRANGE CASE OF JEKYLL & HYDE coming up at Jack Studio in September. Your adaptations of the classics have been Arrows and Traps main focus, so does ONE GIANT LEAP herald a shift away from this? No, in fact because I know the next season of shows, One Giant Leap is perhaps the anomaly. Our work normally has a dark bent, we favour drama with funny lines as opposed to an out-and-out comedy. We’ve only ever done one full comedy before, The Gospel According To Philip back in 2016, so this is something of a return to that. I knew that the company was changing, and wanted to make a swansong to the current phase of work, I had originally planned for it to be TARO but that story ended so sadly, I wanted the last one to be lighter, more celebratory – there’s something inherently amusing about the various tropes you usually get in the theatre world, and so I thought a comedy would be a fitting homage to where we’ve come from, and a clean break to where we want to go next. The company has been going from strength to strength, what are the things of which you are most proud? Mainly, that we’re still going. Most theatre companies on the fringe don’t make it to their third show, we’re on our seventeenth. Part of that is sheer stubbornness, there have been points where any rational person would have thrown in the towel, but there was always something in me that would never bend, never break, never give up. It’s part ambition, part not wanting to fail, part wanting to make my father proud of me, part bloody-mindedness, part theatre-addiction. I think production-wise I’m most proud of The White Rose, to what that achieved, all the five star reviews and the Best Production Offie-nom, but of course I’m also very proud of the other twelve times we’ve been nominated for Off West End Awards, the relationship we’ve built with the Jack, the bond I have with my creative team and my casts, and just the fact that people seem to like the work. It’s still always funny to me when a reviewer calls us “critically-acclaimed” or “renowned rep company” – to me it’s just me, telling the stories I want to tell, with people I want to work with, you don’t always think about how it looks from the outside. I’m just producing the theatre I’d like to go and see. It was rumoured that you would be leaving fringe theatre for other careers, partly because of problems with funding. Was there are truth in that? Absolutely! And in a sense, this is still completely true. I am indeed done with fringe. I think I got to The White Rose in 2018 – where we got the Offie-Nom for Production, we had eight 5-star reviews, four 4 star reviews, we’d completely sold out, and done it the cheapest way possible, and we still didn’t break even. Which was very hard to take, and forced me to face the truth – you cannot hope to attain best practice ITC rates for your casts / creatives / yourself if you only do 15 shows in a 50 seater and you don’t have subsidising support from an arts grant scheme. It just isn’t possible. So I made the decision to stop producing work. Now obviously, with the shows being booked so far in advance, there were still three productions upcoming in the diary that I had to honour. But knowing I was quitting, and that this was the end for me, was too hard to bear - ultimately I had to face the fact that theatre is my life, and I could never leave it – so I had to find a way to make it work financially, not just for myself but for everyone else in the company, particularly the actors who are so often completely screwed over in fringe, and often end up working for nothing. Which is where the idea to change the model came from. Shrink the casts and sets to a more tourable model – 14 people down to 4 – and engage a tour booker to take the productions out of London to larger spaces that could widen the potential revenue. The Jack is our home, and we will always premiere all our shows there, but then we will take them into the provinces. The vision is still the same, adaptations of literary work, and biopics of iconic figures of history, but the remit and scale of the endeavour has changed. I don’t see it as an ending, just a moving from one phase into another. But yes, absolutely, the 8-10 handers, movement-heavy, ensemble, big music, huge shows – this stage in our trajectory is ending with One Giant Leap, and whilst I see why it has to end, a part of me is sad to see it go, because there was something so wonderful about doing a massive 15-hander like Three Sisters. Are you one of those people who is meticulously planning the future? Yes indeed, because really we have to plan ahead in order to book the shows with the venues. We’re doing One Giant Leap next month, and then move to Jeykll & Hyde in September, both at the Jack – and then Hyde goes on tour for about six months, with an opening of our next biopic Chaplin coming about halfway through the run in February. Because I’m overseeing contracts, and touring plans, and writing the scripts as well as casting each show and most likely directing each one, I need to know where we’ll be and when we’re doing it – I’m trying to build a book of shows, a repertoire that is constantly touring, moving forward, and ever-evolving – reaching more audiences, and engaging with new communities. In the meantime, we can’t wait to see ONE GIANT LEAP. Could you give us a little flavour of what’s to come? In terms of shows after One Giant Leap, we have Jekyll & Hyde - a dark, political thriller set in a post-Trump America – a gritty examination of the corruption of power, then Chaplin – which tells the story of the 20th Century’s most famous clown, documenting his path to becoming the iconic Little Tramp – and his meteoric rise from Victorian poverty to Hollywood fame. After that, we’re bringing back one of our most successful productions of 2017, Frankenstein, revisited and rewritten for a more tourable model, and then a biopic of Marilyn Monroe, called Making Marilyn, which covers the Norma Jean origin portion of the star’s life. After that – who knows? I’ve always wanted to tackle Madame Bovary – and I’d like to bring back TARO as it was one that I was particularly proud of in terms of its style and poetry. Finally, your shows at Brockley Jack are becoming legendary, it’s a great partnership. What are the things you’ve learnt about theatre whilst working at Brockley Jack? So much. The Jack has been a great place to develop my approach to stagecraft, and how to tell stories as clearly and engagingly as possible. Since we joined the Jack, we’ve built a vision of the style we want to have, and how we approach each difficulty, or tricky moment to stage, how our work with movement and text interconnect, and what we look for in our ensemble for each show. And, I guess, ultimately, I’ve being able to return to my training as a writer, and I’ve been so lucky to have so many opportunities to experiment with my writing, and get to think about how to tell a story and how to build each character. Playwriting is not something I’ve tried before, and I’ve loved delving into each of the worlds that the Jack has opened the door to. But I think most of all, I’ve been honoured by the patronage and support of Kate and Karl – and they’ve shown me the power of hard work, diligence, and care – if I ended up with anything like the talent and acumen they have, I’d be very happy. @June 2019 London Pub Theatres Magazine Ltd All Rights Reserved THIS SHOW HAS ENDED ONE GIANT LEAP Brockley Jack Theatre 2 – 27 July 2019 directed by Ross McGregor produced by Arrows & Traps Theatre Productions Box Office > Below: Rehearsals at Brockley Jack Studio "We’re not trying to say anything serious about whether the moon landing was or wasn’t real, but more provide a raucous night out at the theatre, and keep you laughing about it on the Overground home." "... speaking for myself, after the last year I’m sick of the darkness, I’m bored by the constant stream of depressive updates about the rise of the Right, I can’t engage with it, the European elections gave a victory to nationalists, we gave a state visit to a racist, homelessness is at an all-time high, and we’re literally cooking the planet to death." "Most theatre companies on the fringe don’t make it to their third show, we’re on our seventeenth. Part of that is sheer stubbornness, there have been points where any rational person would have thrown in the towel, but there was always something in me that would never bend, never break, never give up. It’s part ambition, part not wanting to fail, part wanting to make my father proud of me, part bloody-mindedness, part theatre-addiction." "... knowing I was quitting, and that this was the end for me, was too hard to bear - ultimately I had to face the fact that theatre is my life, and I could never leave it – so I had to find a way to make it work financially, not just for myself but for everyone else in the company, particularly the actors who are so often completely screwed over in fringe, and often end up working for nothing. Which is where the idea to change the model came from." " ... most of all, I’ve been honoured by the patronage and support of Kate and Karl (Jack Studio Theatre) – and they’ve shown me the power of hard work, diligence, and care – if I ended up with anything like the talent and acumen they have, I’d be very happy." In celebration of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing, Arrows & Traps Theatre bring their critically-acclaimed approach to a brand-new comedy set in the back streets of a Hollywood lot. One Giant Leap is about the power of having an impossible dream, realising it’s impossible, and then trying your hardest to fake it and hope no one notices.

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themagiciansreccenter · 5 years

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Author Spotlight: @high-king-margo

Every week we interview a writer from The Magicians fandom. If you would like to be interviewed or you want to nominate a writer, get in touch via our ask box.

First things first, tell us a little about yourself.

Hey there! I'm Lexi (or some people may know me as Nell). I'm in my early 20s, recently graduated with a creative writing degree and certificate in publishing and still trying to learn how to navigate the real world! I love all things creative and when I'm not writing, I'm doing art or playing music or spending time with my pets!

How long have you been writing for?

I started taking writing seriously in seventh grade, but I didn't start writing fanfiction until tenth.

What inspired you to start writing for The Magicians?

The characters, for sure. I love the world and the story, but the characters are all so complex, so beautiful and ugly in their own ways, it's just thrilling to write about them regardless of context--especially the way they interact with one another.

Who is/are your favourite character(s) to write? What it is about them that makes them your favourite?

Margo 100%! Her voice just comes easily to me, and I love the depth of her character. We're all familiar with her armor at this point, and since I watched the show this past summer I've loved poking under the hood at all the soft mushy bits. She has an incredible capacity for love and my favorite thing is to drag that part of her out into the open.

Do you have a preference for a particular season/point in time to write about?

I generally prefer to write canon-compliant stuff, so my favorite point to write about is after whatever the last episode to have aired was! Easy between seasons, not so much during them. As for a particular season, I haven't actually written anything taking place during season 2, but I would really like to!

Are you working on anything right now? Care to give us an idea about it?

Yep, I'm working on Timeline 25 off the 39 Graves Project! I don't have a real title for it yet, but it's currently the longest thing I've ever written, so it's a lot of feeling around in the dark and experimenting for me. It's in two parts: Julia and Margo. They're two very different sides of the same situation.

How long is your “to do list”?

Not very long, but that's probably because I don't keep a real list, just random ideas floating around in my head! I do have three fics in progress that I may or may not ever finish, but other than that I have maybe two or three more ideas.

What is your favourite fic that you’ve written for The Magicians? Why?

"Just to Bring You Home." It's the longest oneshot I've ever written, and I did it based on an ask from the prompt exchange thinking it would be quite a bit shorter than it was. I love the dynamic (what little of it there is) between Margo and Kady, so I took it and ran, and it ended up being something I was really proud of!

Many writers have a fic that they are passionate about that doesn’t get the reception from the fandom that they hoped for. Do you have a fic you would like more people to read and appreciate?

I've only written three fics, but for this I'd say "So Far From Where I Want to Be." It's a His Dark Materials (or The Golden Compass) daemon AU, so that probably put people unfamiliar with it off, but I think daemons make character studies ten times more interesting, so I went for it! It was the first fic I wrote for The Magicians, and it's a little outdated now that we've had Margo's big episode in 410, but it's how I saw her and her relationship to sex, and it honestly probably always will be.

What is your writing process like? Do you have any traditions or superstitions that you like to stick to when you’re writing?

It's a struggle. It's hard for me to start working and it's hard for me to keep working, even if I enjoy the work, so if I want any hope of getting anything substantial done I have to completely block my internet. If I'm feeling extra focused I'll put on instrumental music in the background, but usually I need as few distractions as possible, and boy is that hard when your own mind is a distraction!

Do you write while the seasons are airing or do you prefer to wait for hiatus? How does the ongoing development of the canon influence and inspire your writing process?

This is my first year in the fandom, so most of my writing has been done during the season, but I definitely prefer to wait for hiatus and I'll feel a lot more at ease writing fic once the season ends! I'm not really sure how the development of canon influences me, though; I take note of new details about the characters, but since I tend to write based on the most recent episode or outside the canon timeline altogether, it doesn't affect me that much.

What has been the most challenging fic for you to write?

I know I'm still in the middle of it, but Timeline 25 by far. It took an amount of planning I quite frankly wasn't prepared for and several structural revamps, and even now that I know what I'm doing, it's a lot of work keeping everything consistent and flowing well.

Are there any themes or tropes that you like particularly like to explore in your writing?

I have a thing for feelings confessions. I just think the point at which characters admit to themselves and to other people who they love and how they love them is really interesting, so I tend to explore that!

Are there any writers that inspire your work? Fanfiction or otherwise?

I'm gonna be honest, when I read fanfiction I kind of...forget to look and see who wrote it? I leave kudos and comments, but I'm just now realizing I have no idea who my favorite fic authors are! The one I'm sure of is OurLadyOnTheOtherSide, because they're The BattleKing writer and I fell into the ship deep this season. I don't do a lot of reading in general anymore (it's bad, and I'm trying to fix it, but it's gotten a lot harder since high school), but as for published authors and screenwriters, Neil Gaiman, Philip Pullman, and Mike Flanagan are the ones who come to mind.

What are you currently reading? Fanfiction or otherwise?

I started "The Forest Queen" by Betsy Cornwell in January and haven't gotten past the first few chapters...oops. I have a whole pile of books I should be reading, but I haven't.

What is the most valuable piece of writing advice you’ve ever been given?

Don't stop to mull over small details or even whole sections if it's slowing you down or keeping you at a standstill. If you can't think of a word, put something random in brackets and search the document for brackets after you're done writing to get those words right. Highlight things you're unsure of to come back to later. Put a line break with the word "SKIP" in all caps if you can't figure out how to get from one scene to another. Anything to keep going! Doing these things has honestly saved a lot of my writing from collecting dust because of getting stuck on something insignificant.

Are there any words or phrases you worry about over using in your work?

I think very cinematically when I write, so I usually see and hear the characters pretty clearly, which means a lot of sighing and shrugging and glancing etc., because that's what human beings do. The thing about writing is that you've got to shave down some of those human things or it gets to be too much, and I struggle with that.

What was the first fanfic that you wrote? Do you still have access to it?

It was a crossover between Victorious and iCarly and...the Portal games. I think I could find it if I tried, but I'd really rather not.

Rapidfire Round!

Self-edit or Beta?

Self-edit

Comments or Kudos/Reblogs or Likes?

Comments and reblogs every time!

Smut, Fluff or Angst?

Angst with fluff thrown in, but I'd like to try smut at some point.

Quick & Dirty or Slow Burn?

Quick & Dirty, because I almost exclusively write oneshots.

Favourite Season?

Season Three

Favourite Episode?

4x10

Favourite Book?

Haven’t read them.

Three favourite words?

sweetheart, haunted, murmur

Want to be interviewed for our author spotlight? Get in touch here.

#the magicians #the magicians rec center #author spotlight #author spotlight: high-queen-margo

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inthenameofthebody · 3 years

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Music, Meditation, Painting—and Dreaming

A conversation with Philip Glass and Fredericka Foster

Philip Glass

and

Fredericka Foster

FALL 2021

We are on the phone, freewheeling about our practices: music, art, and meditation. Another day, we are in Philip’s kitchen, sitting at a wooden table. Behind us are comfortable couches and a private outdoor space. Philip’s partner, the artist Saori Tsukada, is working with flowers in the urban garden surrounding the house.

—Fredericka Foster

Philip Glass (PG): I was talking once to Gelek Rimpoche [1938–2017] about meditation, and I asked him, “Isn’t it just paying attention?” Yes, he said, “that’s absolutely what it is.” Meditation is a nice fuzzy word that we all like to talk about—but paying attention is placing your mind and functioning in a different way.

During the few years I have practiced meditation, I have worked with a number of texts. Say I am reading texts I have read many times—I’m thinking of the first Panchen Lama’s book on guru devotion [Lama Chöpa: The Guru Puja], which is not well understood. It is not about the guru; it is about the devotion. When I decide to really pay attention, I go back in my memory and look at some of the initiations I have taken. I watch the language change from awareness to remembering. It is possible to train the mind to increase memory.

I once asked the [scholar-teacher] Demo Rinpoche how many books he had memorized, and he replied that he wasn’t doing much memorizing at all—he thought only about 19! I’m sure it is many more now, and Gelek Rimpoche had memorized a library. The Tibetan culture cultivated the idea of memorizing. The passing on of wisdom could have been very accurate, since this was their main way of sharing information. The Tibetan lamas would memorize entire books and then, looking at a particular page, include the footnotes from other books they had read to verify a particular idea or lineage in the book they were writing themselves.

Fredericka Foster (FF): And here I am, still working to memorize all the texts that I work with daily! Memorization is also a part of a visual artist’s training. When we learn to draw, we work from reality—say, at its simplest, a still life. First we draw a series of lines to establish a compositional placement on the page. Then we memorize a line, draw it, and go back to the source to check it. We keep doing that until we have trained our hand to accurately follow our eye. Another memory exercise involved going through a pile of one thousand prints in a day and then discussing what we had seen. Or we would spend hours in front of a single painting and then sketch it out later.

PG: Culture has often been passed from one generation to the other through the power of memorization. We know the Bible was written 200 years after the birth of Christianity, so we assume it was made up. But it is possible that a sharp mind could remember very clearly and pass it along to another sharp mind, so the passing along of wisdom could have actually been very accurate, maybe more accurate than you would find in books, which are subject to typographical error, bad editions, and missing pages.

FF: Tibetan Buddhism attracts a lot of visual artists, and I suspect it is because we take easily to the many visualization exercises available for practitioners. I remember your telling me that your father taught you to play mental chess, which would certainly serve to sharpen your memory.

PG: Yes, he began doing that with his brother to pass time while they were waiting for the papers to be delivered for their paper route. And he continued playing with me and my brother.

If you go back to the 15th and 16th centuries, people didn’t write down everything. Many people didn’t write at all! One memorizing trick was to visualize a bookshelf and to actually visualize the names of the books on the shelf. I tried this once to see if it would work with a dance company in Australia. There were 20 people in the company, and we worked with them for a few days. With each member, I visualized their name on a book cover and put it in a certain location on an imaginary shelf. The last day I was able to say goodbye to each one, correctly remembering their names while looking at the bookshelf I had created in my mind. And they said, “How did you do that?” Well, what I was doing was trying to see if that thing worked. It did work.

“When that intensity of attention is applied to creating, you can’t stand outside and watch it; you have to give up the witness.”

FF: And we both did a lot of memorization in school—of poetry, speeches, and so on. It’s helpful when we memorize sutras and prayers today.

PG: All that also serves to assist us with the flow of attention. I once heard someone say he didn’t understand meditation. I said, “Forget that word; just pay attention to what you are doing.” We had been talking about infinity, and my friend suggested it was the flow of eternity, and I said that is the whole idea, the process of the mind attending to what you are doing, one moment at a time.

I find that when that intensity of attention is applied to creating, you can’t stand outside and watch it; you have to give up the witness. People ask me all the time, “Where did that music come from?” I have no idea, because all my energy went into writing the music. Since I had no awareness of myself writing, I had extra energy to increase the depth of concentration. It left me without the awareness of doing the work. I discovered that being aware of myself creating was an indulgence I couldn’t afford.

FF. It sounds like you have somehow overcome dualism when you are writing music. It’s like the state we work to achieve in order to become one with the object of meditation.

PG: Actually, when I decided to explore where music lived, I found that music comes from dreaming. I noticed I would wake up with a piece of music very clear in my mind. I thought these were stray ideas, but then I became curious where these ideas came from—the dreaming function of the mind is not ordinarily available to us. So I decided to wake up and write it down.

Recently, I was considering working on King Lear, a play I don’t like very much, and I was thinking I don’t want to write music for this. I finished the play and went to sleep. Then, at 5:30 in the morning, I heard music playing, and realized it was King Lear music and that the play was all about Lear’s relationship with his daughter; everything else was distraction. I went to the piano without hesitation. I started to write words by hand to describe the idea, then I sketched the music—a few measures. I thought it was the beginning of Lear, but actually it was the end.

FF: I keep pen and paper at my bedside and write or draw ideas as they appear. I haven’t done much with these ideas, but you are inspiring me to pay closer attention to them.

PG: Dreaming is the most personal and unique function that we don’t normally share with others. In analysis, we paid a lot of attention to dreams, but I am not talking about Freudian analysis and projecting it onto everyone else. What I learned from analysis was to give up my interest in the uninteresting—all those family issues made me bored with myself, and I didn’t have to do that anymore. Maybe the analyst knows this is what is happening. I read that during the first two hours of sleep, the mind looks at the day just past and sorts out memories to be preserved and those to be put away. The mind acts as an archivist. The creative part comes close to morning, before you wake up. When I wake up, I ask myself What was I just thinking? It is probably what I was dreaming about.

FF: Are you talking about lucid dreaming?

PG: No, but I can stand at the door of my dream and look into the room, as it were. It’s not complete, but it’s enough. Before I write, I access that dreaming state. I may never understand the dream, but what is important is that the material of the dream has become available.

FF: You encouraged me once to see the Cocteau Orphic trilogy, which inspired you to write an opera triptych. Those three films explore dreams and myths and can be watched again and again. When I moved from doing paintings exploring the symbols of faith and myth to working with images of water, I felt that I moved into metaphor and closer to the dream state. I am so relaxed looking at water. It frees my mind to wander, and I get new ideas, or watch old ones come together.

PG: The challenge of any artist is to keep the fire of creativity alive. What we mostly do is, we get good at doing something, and we keep doing it and don’t change much at all. If I look at the work of Sol LeWitt [1928- 2007], it is extraordinary, but it doesn’t change much. [Josef] Albers did manage to work with a square in a square over and over, but while they might look the same, they are not the same at all because of the influence of color.

An artist like me wants radical change. I found that the engine of change was working with new people and the new ideas they brought to the conversation. It didn’t turn into a formula, but I often did this.

Bob Wilson and I did [the opera] Einstein on the Beach, and it was very successful. To avoid doing “The Son of Einstein on the Beach,” I next did the opera Satyagraha, which was completely different. That was counterintuitive. We all want to please people. Your gallery wants you to make more of the same kind of paintings because they were successful. Most people follow success with another similar one, but I wanted to keep creative thinking alive in the process.

Every time I made a big change, I would lose a lot of people, but I would get some new ones. I found 50 percent of people liked it and 50 percent didn’t.

FF: After the Fischbach Gallery [where I regularly showed] left New York and went online, I found my work changing. I’ve always had to solve a new problem with each painting, but now I feel free to change what I was doing in a more radical way.

PG: I’ve noticed your work is changing. I have turned this change idea into a mantra: I am never happier than when I don’t know what I am doing. Still, I have moments of panic. How is this going to work? It can be very stressful trying to do new things, and I am not always completely successful, but I change as much as I can.

I discovered it was impossible not to do something familiar to some degree. When working in theater, I had to have at least one person who would come with me into a new project. I had to find a compromise about what I was willing to know and not know. I found I had to take something with me. Parts of my language would have to be the same, or my task would become impossible.

FF: In your ninth symphony, I feel like you are communing with the cosmos; there seems to be a seamless interaction between art and meditative revelation.

“I have turned this change idea into a mantra: I am never happier than when I don’t know what I am doing. Still, I have moments of panic.”

PG: Our minds are working all the time, but we can’t drive thoughts into awareness. As an artist, you are distilling your thoughts all the time, or listening to music, or paying attention to images. You are probably painting very differently now than you did when you were young, and some of that will be due to the fact that you have learned how to master your attention.

Once when I was in the mountains of Mexico with friends, we had to cross a valley to where we left our car. It looked to me like we didn’t have time to get there. If it got dark and we were in the desert, we would be in trouble. We started walking in a focused-intention kind of way—they called it a walk of attention. A walk that would have normally taken 40 minutes took 10. I had that experience of being able to pay attention to my attention, to actually cross a valley in a much shorter period of time so that we got to where we needed to in the light. We’re talking about pretty hardcore reality. The only way to do it was to command my attention to the point where I was able to make that happen. You can say “Well, you just made that up.” Of course I just made it up; how else could it have happened if I hadn’t made it up? But the fact of the matter is, I got across the valley before the sun went down. I know you’ve experienced something like that in painting.

FF: Yes, and at those times it seems that the painting paints itself. Later, I think, How did I do that? I’ve also experienced the sensation of entering the consciousness of animals, or even fish, when I have been watching water; suddenly feeling the sense of hunger and of being prey at the same moment—imagination becoming compassion. Music, art, and meditation are all means of accomplishing deep mental targeting of our feelings of interdependence and compassion.

PG: Bravo!

#compassion #dreaming #music #meditation #phillipglass

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briangroth27 · 6 years

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Ready Player One Review

I went into Ready Player One with polarized preconceptions. Several friends loved the book so I was initially excited, but in the run-up to the film's release hate exploded online and I saw all manner of spoilers and scans of troubling chunks of the novel, which made me much more wary. I still liked the story’s idea so the trailers’ focus on nostalgia didn’t bother me, but I didn’t know what to expect going in. I was pleasantly surprised: it’s a fun roller coaster! There are several strong ideas at play, even if they aren't fleshed out as much as they could've been. It definitely seems like most of the book’s problematic stuff has been excised, making for a fast-moving, enjoyable film with a strong, important message.

Full Spoilers…

Tye Sheridan was solid as Wade Watts/Parzival, a generally good guy obsessed with OASIS’ virtual playground and the quest to win control of it. Sheridan was awkward and geeky enough to sell a classic nerd persona without being so overbearing or unlikable that it's unbelievable Art3mis (Olivia Cooke) would fall for him (or that we would root for him). An altercation in the real world with Wade’s aunt’s (Susan Lynch) boyfriend (Ralph Ineson) was a nice moment for Sheridan to show Watts’ vulnerability and fear, giving a glimpse of how differently he reacted to challenges outside the OASIS. I would’ve liked to see more opportunities for that in the script, particularly after Art3mis meets him for real. While I was glad Wade was toned way down from what I’ve heard he is in the novel, I think he’s written a bit too safely. He’s likable, but he’s so much an everyman that he lacks conflict. I don’t think genuinely good characters are boring, but challenging their beliefs is a way to make goodness interesting and this film doesn’t do a lot of that. That could’ve been easily remedied by playing up a few aspects of the movie version to give him a stronger arc. For example, Wade’s poor and wants to win the contest so he can live a life of luxury (winning comes with a huge payday). Why not use that selfish—if understandable, in a world consumed by severe economic decline no one cares about because they all escape to the OASIS—instinct to spark more conflict with Art3mis, who wants to better the world with her winnings? Why not have Wade argue that it’s easier to play in the OASIS than to endlessly fight and maybe really die for people who don’t care about the real world? Maybe even let the promise of relaxation, safety, and an end to financial worries tempt her a bit so her values are challenged as well. When she beats that temptation to carry on with her crusade, Wade could also realize there are more important things than his own comfort.

Also, Wade declares his love for Art3mis way faster than anyone could reasonably love someone, somewhat undercutting the “take chances with your heart” lesson he learns later, so I wish the script had given him time to find out what real love is. He could still be intimidated by the enormity of real love, necessitating that lesson when actual feelings are on the line. While I don’t think their love story is any shallower than in the average film, that doesn’t mean it couldn’t have been deepened. Lean into Wade’s instant “movie love” and have it mess up Art3mis’ quest by making his help a hindrance for a while. His eagerness to connect with her does destroy his real life, but the movie only comments on how foolish he is to reveal his real name, not that his infatuation is the cause. I also wish there was much more reaction to Wade’s family being murdered; it radicalizes him to Art3mis’ cause (making his aunt into yet another woman in a refrigerator, unfortunately) and Sheridan is good at conveying the loss for the few moments the film lets him live in it, but beyond that it felt like the loss got forgotten somewhere. Even when Wade and his friends intercept villain Nolan Sorrento (Ben Mendelsohn) as he’s exiting the OASIS and trap him in a simulation, Wade’s rage at his aunt’s death seems to be mostly an act, because he has a totally cool head as soon as he leaves Sorrento’s presence. Had the movie presented this as an example of how disconnected players had become from people in their real lives (even if they do make friends with people online), it would’ve been a strong, compelling rebuke of the OASIS. If that’s the intention, it needed a vocalized realization and a moment for Sheridan to explore it.

Olivia Cooke was awesome and driven as Samantha Cook/Art3mis, who—like others have pointed out—had a stronger plot and motivation than Wade did. Since her father died a debtor worked to death by the evil corporation IOI, she was out to prevent them from winning the contest and (in the book, so I’ve been told) wants to use her financial winnings to better the real world. I wish that end goal had been clearly articulated in the movie, because while I like the idea that the world is so bad that the only thing worth fighting for is an escape from it, the huge sum of money the players were competing for could make a real difference. Also, it might have been interesting for Art3mis to be out to shut down the game altogether. There's a literal "delete the OASIS" button—which I kinda wish was designed to look like the Ghostbusters’ Containment Unit—introduced at the end that's never referenced elsewhere, so why not tease it earlier as part of Art3mis' mission? Shutting down the game (and reimbursing everyone for their virtual loot) so that people would be forced to focus on bettering and living in the real world would’ve been a logical goal for her. That's where you could play up Wade's reverence for James Halliday (Mark Rylance) and his OASIS by making him argue for the importance of a game, leading to them compromising with the "close the OASIS on Tuesdays and Thursdays" idea at they implement in end.

Samantha immediately shutting down Wade shortening her real name to Sam after they met in the real world was a nice beat; it was a small moment, but it’s cool that she got to assert her chosen identity in the real world as well as online. I loved that she was weirded out by Wade saying he loved her so quickly and that she called him out on not really knowing her, instead only seeing the parts she wanted him to see. Those both felt like realistic reactions and smart commentary on internet (and real-life) interactions as informed by movies where all romance is a speedy fairy tale. I do wish they'd continued to subvert and expand on those ideas, however. They could've played up her insecurities about her real self beyond being embarrassed by a birthmark, which would've been a nice contrast to Wade's confidence in the OASIS vs. his considerably more fearful real-world persona. It also would've been nice if more than her birthmark had thrown Wade off. Props to him for not caring about her physical appearance, but that's a really low bar; why not include some personality traits he doesn't like? Different tastes in pop culture? Are there things about Wade or his interests she doesn’t like? At the very least, her rebellion could've fueled conflict between them and created much more drama than her apprehension about her birthmark did. Her drive could've been too much for him at first, since he just wanted a cozy life and she's putting her real self in danger. Now that I think about it, playing that up could’ve been a reference itself to Han and Leia in the original Star Wars. While conflict and challenges would’ve generated more sparks and, eventually, a stronger bond, both Sheridan and Cooke sold what they got and I liked them together. While I appreciated that they were drawn as more or less equally capable in the contest (and Samantha was definitely more capable in the real world), I didn’t need her to tell Wade she knew he'd win: it seemed less supportive and more like it undercut her own skills to nod at him being some kind of savior. She does get a lot to do in securing Wade’s access to the final challenge from behind enemy lines, though, which was cool and made winning a bit more of a team effort.

I liked Wade’s best friend Aech (Lena Waithe) a lot and the reveal that the male avatar was controlled by a woman was cool. It was also a nice touch that her mechanic skills weren’t received with shock once her friends knew who she was (and that she didn’t need to explain how she was such a good mechanic!). Waithe was good with what she got, but I wish they'd used her to explore the idea that the OASIS lets you be anyone and anything you want a bit more. Wade gets confidence, Samantha gets beauty and the power to strike back, and Sho (Philip Zao) gets respect beyond his years, but letting Helen articulate exactly what she gets out of the OASIS could’ve been a powerful moment and an argument for its positive aspects. I’m glad the movie at least nodded at her being a lesbian (by having her avatar enjoy making out with the Shining ghost (Gem Refoufi)) instead of ignoring that altogether, though that’s the perfect example of something that could’ve been expanded upon by giving her a moment to say the OASIS allowed her to acceptably live her truth. I wish we’d gotten to know Wade’s pals Sho and Daito (Win Morisaki) better as well. They could've at least had varied goals; rather than seeking control and fortune, maybe one of them could’ve just been down to complete the challenges like a trophy hunter in today’s video games. In general, I would've liked to see more of Wade's competitors before he brings everyone together at the climax. TJ Miller’s I-R0k is a great counterpart to Wade, given he comes off as a much more problematic nerd than Watts does, but he’s still essentially an IOI stooge rather than a player with his own agenda. Are there rebel Gunters Art3mis works with that do extreme things she doesn't approve of? There's only so much screen time, of course, but after the first leg of the Egg Hunt it felt like only the High Five and IOI were invested in the quest.

Mendelsohn was good as the evil businessman in charge of keeping IOI's profits up. That he wanted to monetize the OASIS by putting ads all over it and wanted to charge for its use made him a good avatar for both Hollywood leaning on nostalgia instead of creating new things and for the forces opposed to net neutrality, since this tech should be for everyone. The fact that he was greedier than outright mustache-twirling evil (until he started killing people) was a smart choice that kept him human. At the same time, that greed quickly led him down a "who cares" path: he has no concern about zeroing out everyone scrambling for the Easter Egg, which would bankrupt everyone against him (I hope Wade restored those players' coin counts!), and that was good character progression. I also liked his fake geek scene: being fed trivia to convince Wade they were the same (and his general exasperation with geek culture) was a good way to make him markedly different from every other character in the movie, particularly the younger generation. I also liked the change in his response to confronting Wade as an “inferior” geek and Wade as a competent rebel threat. I've seen it jokingly pointed out that a rich white guy like Sorrento just admitting he's a criminal and giving up at the end is the most unrealistic thing in the movie, but I think that's foreshadowed by Wade confronting him with the "gun." Nolan respects the gamers when they show the capability to end his life; as soon as they're willing to play by his rules, he takes them seriously and backs down almost immediately. Like Wade’s online courage and offline weakness, Nolan has an “avatar” of strength in the real world around people he believes are less than him.

Contrasting with Sorrento, I really liked that the IOI researchers (Turlough Convery, Joe Hurst, Eric Sigmundsson, James Dryden, Danielle Phillips, Rona Morrison, Khalil Madovi, Morris Minelli) were truly invested in the outcome of the game and (eventually) watching Wade win it. Their glee at the success of the hunt and the purity of the final challenge added a lot of texture to them. They may have sold out to IOI (or simply been forced into working with them because of debt or promises of riches), but they weren't just heartless drones. While I appreciated that depth, I was a little confused about the power IOI wields in general in this world. One of their divisions seemed to be a (virtual) privatized debtor’s prison and I would've liked to see what that was like when not engaged in the egg hunt (assuming it existed before Halliday's challenge). That seems ripe for the potential to program nightmares into prisoner’s minds when the only crime was falling behind on their debts. I've been told that in the book, IOI's Sixers are more like indentured servants and I could see that spin in the film (particularly through Samantha's dad), but some clarity on what their actual power level and place in society was would've been appreciated, because it certainly looked like Samantha had been arrested by them. It was also a little odd that IOI could blow up part of the Cleveland Stacks and no authorities cared or even showed up until the end, unless that's a comment on the classism of this society. Despite that lack of clarity, "the common people vs. a corporation with too much power" is a solid theme and the movie plays it well. I also appreciated that Sorrento’s real-world muscle was headed up by a woman, F’nale Zandor (Hannah John-Kamen). She could’ve easily been a guy and most movies would’ve gone that way, but making her a strong, dangerous woman who didn’t like Sorrento that much was a cool choice. It would’ve been nice for Samantha, Sho, and Daito to be able to defeat her instead of Wade (who was focused on the OASIS during their fight), though.

I liked Halliday and his quiet sadness in the wake of the important lesson about connections he'd learned too late. He seems much more likable and understandable than what I've heard about his book counterpart. I'm pretty quiet in real life, so I could definitely relate to his difficulty opening up to people. The fact that his quest to know his favorite pop culture is really a quest to appreciate the game and the world outside by connecting with real people (first Halliday, then people in your real life) was an awesome twist. Whether Halliday is really dead or not doesn't matter to me; either way, he is free of his creation and has found a successor who can do what he couldn’t. Halliday’s programmed self leaving with his childhood self was a perfect exit from the story for him. Simon Pegg gave a solid, unexpectedly subdued performance as Halliday's former friend Ogden Morrow that I liked a lot. He had a good bit of tragedy to him over falling out with Halliday and I liked how he figured into the OASIS world. Serving as the docent of the Halliday museum felt like a cool way to honor his friend and preserve his memory while potentially trying to figure out exactly what drove them apart. I’m glad that the fact that Halliday was in love with Og’s wife wasn’t played to make anyone look bad—rather, it was treated as just something that happened—and the real tragedy was that they fell apart over something Og probably would’ve forgiven Halliday for had they just talked about it instead of Halliday bottling it all up inside (another lost connection).

I liked the references in Halliday's virtual world—I love 80s/90s pop culture—but almost none of the cameos stunned me. They were more like set dressing selling the idea of a nostalgia playground and that’s all they needed to be. If they were the real characters instead of players using avatars, we'd lose focus on Wade, Samantha, etc. and their struggle. While we do get glimpses of interests beyond the 80s/90s—the Adam West Batmobile, King Kong, mentions of steampunk, and disco music (bizarrely referred to as "old school"...all of this is old nowadays, not to mention to teens in the 2040s)—as others have noted it would've been nice to see more diverse fandoms represented by the Gunters, even while they were engaged in cracking Halliday's 80s/90s-focused challenge. It would've brought more variety to the characters. As for the contest itself, I loved the race and The Shining test a lot. The race for the first key, through a twisting and turning New York, was a great adaptation of racing games that made me think of Split/Second. It also featured two of my favorite cameos in the movie, Rexy from Jurassic Park and King Kong, because those “were” those characters. The Shining challenge for the second key featured an excellent recreation of Stanley Kubrick's movie before morphing into pretty much exactly what I'd imagine a bombastic video game version of that film would be, which was cool. That adaptation being hated by Stephen King was also a nice tie to Halliday becoming disillusioned by what people were giving up to use his game. Jack Torrence’s fall and attempt to destroy his family also feels like a pretty perfect (if extreme) parallel to Halliday feeling he’d betrayed his best friend by secretly loving his wife and cutting him out of the company. The chaotic melee leading up to the final key was fine, but full of players I didn't know or care about so it fell flatter than it probably should have (one of the "real" characters thrown into that battle gets a great moment, though). On the other hand, the final challenge was a nice, quiet moment that fit the film's theme and Halliday's lesson. It felt right to bring it all down to one player connecting with the designer of one game. The actual final challenge was perfectly personal too, but they totally missed a chance to homage The Last Crusade by having Halliday’s wizard avatar say “You have chosen…wisely.”

I liked the ideas behind this world quite a bit. It’s definitely prescient to showcase a world in love with distractions and games to the point where they stop interacting with real people or doing something worthwhile with their lives (who among us hasn’t gotten distracted by Twitter or Facebook and put off doing something we should be doing?). They did a great job of showing how much people were wrapped up in their virtual lives, spending real money (even their mortgage money!) on virtual trinkets and upgrades. That real-world financial connection made the stakes high enough to carry the film for me. It's true Wade and the High Five are only fighting for a recreational toy (even if it has other applications like education) without having goals for their lives outside the OASIS, but in the dystopia they live in (and in our real world), people need a release and escape: our lives can't just be work/school, food, bathroom breaks, and sleep. That's why we go to movies and play games in the first place. It's why people shouldn't police what people on food stamps use them for; existence should be more than just existing. At the same time, remembering the OASIS is just a game, not the pinnacle of your existence, is a great message and the movie walks the line between these seemingly at-odds lessons very well. To that end, I wish they'd said the High Five were going to use their enormous winnings to make the real world somewhere people would want to explore too.

I'm interested to see if the novel expands on what you can do in the OASIS beyond playing. I did miss the first minute or two—I came in as Wade was introducing his treadmill/haptic suit—so perhaps some of these elements were referenced and I just missed it. I've heard kids go to school inside it and that's an interesting opportunity for students to be exposed to any facet of history/science/whatever in a tactile way through VR. I'd be interested to see how much work is done online in conjunction with OASIS applications, if any. Do people buy their food with OASIS coins? The more real-world things are wrapped up in the program, the more crucial it becomes to save it from a corporation that wants to eventually price people out of vital services. On a more personal level, seeing more people experimenting with how they present themselves to the world would've been great. If they can literally be anything or anyone, a lot of personal freedom is also at stake. Aech and Shao touch on this freedom, as does Art3mis with her idealized appearance, but I would've loved to see more, particularly with today's political battles over transgender rights. In terms of how people in this future interact with each other, I found it disheartening that even 30 years from now, in a world where everyone is constantly online playing in the OASIS, Wade still has trouble believing a girl—even the famous Art3mis!—could be an expert at trivia. This very modern problem doesn't come up much in the movie, but the Slappers Only line stood out to me. Wade and Samantha test each other on Goldeneye 64 knowledge, which is fine, but it's obvious by what she says that she'd know what Slappers Only is without Wade mansplaining it.

From the look of trailers, I never would've guessed Steven Spielberg directed this. However, he brought his trademark heart and humanity to the CGI elements and video game structure; even in unfamiliar trappings, it felt and acted like a Spielberg movie. Despite areas where the characters could've been fleshed out to create more conflict or explore the personal freedom of the OASIS, Spielberg's touch and the strength of his performers kept them likable and engaging. He also maintained a quick pace: this didn’t feel like a two and a half hour movie at all. I thought the CGI looked good, given this was supposed to be a video game with game graphics. Since it intentionally looked "off" from reality, it wasn't jarring to have anime-inspired avatars or constantly shifting geography. I liked that the score had touches of film scores from the 80s in it; those bits of nostalgia did get me. From the excerpts I've read online, most of the novel’s problematic elements were removed for the adaptation. Wade doesn't show any transphobia—Aech brings up the idea that Art3mis could be a guy and Wade denies it, but seems to accept that possibility anyway. They're worried Art3mis is a guy who’ll steal Wade’s coins, not that he’s a guy who wants to date him. There's no "masturbation manifesto,” no super-long lists of everything Wade has studied (partially because they can just show us all the references and partially because the movie has a more personal egg hunt). Wade's attempts to make Art3mis like him are also toned down or cut altogether, though I wouldn't have minded including one or two and subverting them to teach him that real love isn't like in a movie where grand gestures and "persistence"/stalking will get you everywhere. Unfortunately, it did seem like there was still a noticeable lack of content by female and minority artists, though. Thriller gets a shoutout, but only as a costume Wade considers wearing. As I’ve seen pointed out elsewhere, there was also a lack of 80s content that was geared toward girls. Why not have Jem and the Holograms playing the club Wade and Samantha go to or something? This section of the OASIS is curated to Halliday’s tastes, sure, but if we’re going all-in on the 80s and 90s, largely ignoring minority and female artists is a pretty huge oversight.

I don’t think my critiques here are about movie-ruining problems, just areas where a good, solid film could’ve been exceptional. Even if its characters could’ve been expanded to make more of an impact and statement, Ready Player One is definitely worth seeing! It's an exciting adventure with heart and a great, relevant message. I had a lot of fun and I recommend it!

Check out more of my reviews, opinions, and original short stories here!

#ready player one

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rosalyn51 · 6 years

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Photo: Matt Smith and Claire Foy in The Crown by Jason Bell

Peter Morgan returns with Matt Smith and Claire Foy in The Crown from Netflix

The Netflix show is back for season two with a philandering Philip, the Queen in a standoff and all the drama of Suez. The writer tells Stephen Armstrong about his hit ‘deranged institution’.

The Sunday Times, Oct 29, 2017

Ardverikie Castle perches on the edge of Loch Laggan in the Highlands of Scotland. Here, on the wild moor, part of its extensive estate, everything is breathtaking — especially the cold. It’s April, but there’s still snow on the ground, and the camera crew are wrapped up like polar explorers. In the distance, Claire Foy trudges towards them in the Queen’s country uniform of battered green coat and thick tweed skirt. She carries a shotgun; nearby, a dead stag sprawls on the ground — a successful kill for Her Majesty.

During a break in filming, Foy stares thoughtfully at the animal’s corpse. “This is just not something that has ever been part of my life,” the 33-year-old Stockport-born actress ruminates. “She shot her first stag when she was 21. It’s funny to try and think how that would feel. And it’s slightly odd to think she was so young when she shot and killed something as beautiful as this.”

The “she”, of course, is Queen Elizabeth II. Foy’s delicate portrayal of the young royal as she comes to terms with her father’s death, takes his throne and learns the job — while experiencing the passions, tastes, desires, dislikes and family tiffs any twentysomething modern goes through — made the first season of The Crown, Netflix’s epic drama of monarchy, a huge global hit.

“The first moment I realised how huge it was came when I went to the Golden Globes — somewhere I’d been roundly ignored before — and suddenly everyone was coming up to me,” Foy recalls. “It was a wake-up call. It means I’m probably more nervous about season two than I was first time out.”

When it launched in November 2016, season one provided small-screen comfort food for a world nervous about the future. In season two, there’s little cheer to be had. In the first episodes, we get a mix of the chaos of the Suez Crisis — the inept fumblings of the PM, Anthony Eden (Jeremy Northam), as he tries to wriggle around the disapproval of the UN and the US to fight a small, doomed war — and an affair between Prince Philip and a ballet dancer.

“I wanted to throw light on Prince Philip in a way that hasn’t been done before,” says Peter Morgan, the writer of the series. It’s safe to say he has achieved his ambition. Philip begins season two in a cold standoff with his wife, resentful of her status and losing himself in a boozy lunch club co-founded with Mike Parker, his philandering private secretary. As Philip’s inappropriate relationship with the (fictional) ballet dancer comes to light — presumably based on the real Duke of Edinburgh’s rumoured fling with the actress Pat Kirkwood — he and Parker are packed off on a lengthy, laddish tour of the Commonwealth.

There, Philip is honeytrapped into revealing his dark secrets — his pro-Nazi sisters, his mother’s mental-health issues, his father’s money troubles — to a flirty journalist. Parker’s wife divorces him for infidelity, and everything descends into something of a free-for-all. Season two also follows Princess Margaret, played by Vanessa Kirby with a beautifully judged mix of vulnerable heartbreak and waspish arrogance, as she joins London’s swinging scene, dates the photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones (Matthew Goode), screams around the streets on motorbikes and finally marries the bloke.

Matt Smith plays Philip in the first two seasons. (There’s to be a full recasting every two seasons to keep the actors age-appropriate, with Olivia Colman taking over as the Queen for series three.) He admits that he initially found the storyline tricky.

“Young people think he’s prone to gaffes,” Smith says. “But actually, when you get into the man ... He was revered in the navy. He is very bright. He is a great moderniser. He is incredibly funny. He’s on the front line. He’s in the scrum — obviously he’s an alpha. And then he has to kneel in front of his wife. It’s the 1950s, yet he’s told to give up his job and name — his kids will take his wife’s. You can see how you’d go, ‘Hang on. I didn’t sign up for that.’”

“I thought everyone knew Philip had an affair,” Morgan says. He seems surprised at my astonishment. “Nobody has identified the people involved, and I’m not going to do that. I’m not a vindictive person. I’ve just done my best to stick to the facts as I have them.”

It’s a technique that has served him well. By the time The Crown finishes, assuming it runs for all six of its planned seasons, he will have written more than 60 hours chronicling modern Britain for stage and screen, with Elizabeth Windsor at the heart of most of them. True, it was The Deal, his speculative account of the Granita dinner at which Tony Blair persuaded Gordon Brown to shelve his leadership ambitions and serve as chancellor, that diverted his career away from Richard Curtis-style romcoms. But it was The Queen and The Audience that sealed his paradoxical fate: to be a staunch republican with little interest in the monarchy — who says of his work, “The approval of rabid republicans or anti-monarchists is important to me” — and yet who somehow seems to be the only person who can write a convincing portrayal of Elizabeth Windsor.

“Maybe it’s because I am an outsider — both my parents were refugees.” He scratches his head. “If you had told me I would be doing this, I would have told you it was mad, hallucinogenic conjecture. I wouldn’t have guessed there would be anything more to say about this countryside woman of limited intelligence who would have much preferred looking after her dogs and breeding horses to being queen. But now I’m here. Life is strange.”

Morgan is also writing what will almost certainly be seen as a definitive historical document with global reach. Netflix is notoriously tight-lipped about viewing figures. But its quarterly results show that at the end of June this year, the site had 104m subscribers worldwide; in the US alone, figures from companies that monitor Netflix viewing suggest 3.5m Americans watched The Crown in the first month.

The show is planned as six seasons. Season three will be the Wilson era; four focuses on Thatcher and introduces Diana. Each season needs up to two years to prepare and film, so we’re on course for series six to air around 2025, by which time the Queen will be 99 and Prince Philip 104. In other words, it is highly likely to coincide with the deaths of one, if not both, of them. Millions around the world will undoubtedly be glued to this as if it were the definitive story of the Queen’s life.

Morgan grins as he contemplates the idea that he would end up as the chronicler of the second Elizabethan age. “Authorised royal biographers are so straitjacketed, deferential, fawning and unadventurous that they can only be after a knighthood — or they’re completely scurrilous and insolent, like Andrew Morton or Paul Burrell.”

Whether through deference or insolence, he rarely names the Queen, usually saying “Her”, with an emphasis that suggests capitalisation. “I think there’s room to creatively imagine, based on the information we have about Her,” he shrugs.

It has been reported that he and his producers were relieved that the BBC was not involved with the project, as that would have inevitably meant co-operation with the palace. Morgan has had no contact with the palace at any stage of his career — “And I think that’s great.” He leans back in his chair. “They don’t comment on what we do, there’s no co-operation, and as a result I don’t owe them anything.

“When people ask if She’s watched it, I say I have no idea and I don’t want to know. I mean, She’s ninetysomething years old and barely knows what the internet is, so I live in hope that She hasn’t seen it, never watches it and doesn’t give it the slightest thought.”

The more Morgan writes about Her, however, the more her survival strikes him as impressive. The Suez Crisis marks the beginning of his sense of wonder. “I think Suez is a metaphor or an echo of what we’ve subsequently seen in Iraq and Brexit: a massive error of judgment by a hubristic prime minister who rushed into an ill-considered decision with catastrophic effects and consequences for the country,” he says. “Iraq is obvious — but Brexit probably influenced this season more.”

He remembers meeting George Osborne and David Cameron at a dinner party just after their 2015 victory and thinking: wow, these guys are going to be in power for a generation. “Seeing the deference with which they were treated by other politicians, there was a unanimous acceptance of their authority,” he says with a short laugh. “If I had opened a book at that point and said, ‘Within nine months, this entire political class will have caused total havoc and a political catastrophe as big as Suez,’ you couldn’t have got the odds for that.

“When you compare that to Her having been in office for as long as She has and the absence of any catastrophic errors ... They’re survival organisms, like a mutating virus. Look at how many prime ministers are wheeled out in coffins, on stretchers, having made fools of themselves: Downing Street is full of sick people. And yet She survives. It is clearly a deranged institution and a completely insane system, but perhaps it’s the insanity that makes it work. Belief in God is so deranged that it makes absolutely no sense, but it holds people together somehow.”

If season two’s treatment of Eden is a guide, Blair and Cameron need to cancel their Netflix subscriptions soon. Eden’s cocky hubris, frantic drug-taking and woeful incompetence are delivered with a withering sneer.

“I’m reliably told Cameron sleeps well at night, which is mystifying,” Morgan shrugs. “Eden definitely didn’t sleep well, he was a broken man. I think Blair manages to sleep well, and we hate him for it. Yet all three are defined by their errors. Cameron will only be remembered for his misjudgment around a referendum, the horrors of which have barely started.” You sense Morgan is looking forward to writing him.

Later, in Lancaster House, the St James mansion that doubles for Buckingham Palace, I ask the producer Suzanne Mackie if she was worried about the public’s reaction to the controversy in season two.

“I think we always worry the British public might reject us because they have preconceptions about the royal family,” she nods. “But I’ve been with the project from the beginning, and I remember Peter saying he wanted it to be deep, dark and truthful. That era and that class were brutal — but I think he finds the humanity and vulnerability in it, and that’s what people see.”

Matt Smith strolls up — he has just finished his final scene as Philip and is preparing to hand over to an as-yet- unnamed replacement.

“It was hard to give up the Doctor —you want to play it for ever. But with this, you know you can’t,” he says. “Peter is writing Thatcher and Diana for season four, and I couldn’t play that era’s Philip, so I’ll just turn into a punter, the way I did with Doctor Who. I’m looking forward to seeing where they take it, to be honest.” He gives a sly smile.

Morgan wriggles a little uneasily when I relay Smith’s praise. “I’m not good at being happy, so if I hear that people like what we’ve done, I’m immediately consumed with fear that they will be let down by what I’m doing now,” he sighs. “I’m a miserable git.

“But in the end, I’m blessed with the richness of the history of the second half of the 20th century. I’m also blessed because the system She is in is so ridiculous and illogical that even just to unpack it from a point of view of reason or logic is such a joy. And that’s why I do what I do and I’ll keep on doing it until they stop me.”

The real-life events of season two

October 1956 The Suez Crisis: the UK, Israel and France invade Egypt, then retreat in defeat 10 days later.

November 1956 Prince Philip opens the Melbourne Olympics.

January 1957 Anthony Eden resigns as PM, citing ill health, after manoeuvres by mutinous Tory MPs. Harold Macmillan takes over.

January 1957 Prince Charles starts school at Hill House.

February 1960 Princess Margaret and Antony Armstrong-Jones announce their engagement and marry at Westminster Abbey in May.

June 1961 The Queen throws a banquet for the visiting US president John F Kennedy.

November 1961 The Queen visits Ghana.

March 1963 The secretary of state for war, John Profumo, goes before parliament to deny any ‘impropriety whatsoever’ in his relationship with the showgirl Christine Keeler.

June 1963 Profumo admits lying to MPs and resigns.

October 1963 Macmillan resigns, citing ill health. Alec Douglas-Home takes over.

Locations, locations, locations: where the latest series was filmed

Photo: Double whammy: Claire Foy, left, and Vanessa Kirby in ‘Buckingham Palace’ ALEX BAILEY/NETFLIX

Buckingham Palace A number of government offices and stately homes doubled for different parts of the palace — the state rooms were filmed in Lancaster House, in London, now managed by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Wrotham Park, in Barnet, supplied the audience room, and Wilton House, near Salisbury, provided the spectacular ballrooms that hosted JFK’s state dinner.

Royal stomping grounds Ardverikie Castle, in the Highlands of Scotland, provided the exterior, the estate and some of Balmoral’s interiors — the lodge was built in homage to Victoria’s holiday home. Ardverikie has previously been seen in Outlander, Mrs Brown, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen and as Glenbogle in Monarch of the Glen. Knebworth House in Hertfordshire filled in the gaps, having already appeared in The King’s Speech and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and doubled as Wayne Manor in Batman. Belvoir Castle in Leicestershire played Windsor with uncanny accuracy – designed, as it was, by James Wyatt, still fresh from working on Windsor itself. Englefield House, near Reading, stood in for Sandringham, and Addington Palace was Clarence House. The Munden Estate in Hertfordshire served as Kensington Palace, and St Albans Cathedral made a rather convincing Westminster Abbey.

London Margaret’s glamorous gadding was shot mainly on the streets of the city: on the Mall and in parts of Mayfair and Soho, says the director Benjamin Caron — it required little CGI. The Gazelli Art House in Mayfair supplied Antony Armstrong-Jones’s exhibition space. And hospital scenes were all shot in Hornsey Town Hall.

Royal Yacht Britannia To capture Britannia’s exteriors, the team flew a camera mounted on a drone over the yacht in Ocean Terminal, Leith. They also used HMS Belfast for the crew quarters and grimier interiors, as well as a giant fake deck constructed on the edge of a cliff in South Africa. The deck hung out over the sea, providing a suitable backdrop for oceangoing scenes on Philip’s world tour.

The rest of the world South Africa provided the locations for the Suez invasion (the team had to build their own tanks), the Queen’s visit to Ghana, and the Amazon — courtesy of the Keurbooms River. South Africa also served as every one of the countries on Philip’s world tour, with the exception of Antarctica, which was shot in a quarry near London. Various locations in Hungary supplied Philip’s links to Nazi Germany.

Everything else Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire hosted the rest of the sets, including the royal family’s private quarters, 10 Downing Street, the gates of Buckingham Palace, the cabin of a private jet and a few rooms on Britannia.

The Crown is on Netflix from Dec 8

#the crown #claire foy #matt smith #vanessa kirby #matthew goode

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planttastic · 6 years

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Book List 2017!

Goal: 48 Read: 48 New Authors: 13!: Rebekah Crane, Georgia Hunter, David Machado, Dee Lestari, Garson O’Toole, Tahereh Mafi, Soraya Lane, Courtney Elizabeth Mauk, F.C. Lee, Kory Stamper, Marie Lu, Mohsin Hamid, & Krysten Ritter Re-reads: 2: 1984, & The Stupidest Angel

1. The Hidden Oracle (The Trials of Apollo #1) - Rick Riordan, ★★★★

2. Dragon Fly in Amber (Outlander #2) - Diana Gabaldon, ★★★★

3. Seven Up (Stephanie Plum #7) - Janet Evanovich, ★★★

4. Packing For Mars: The Curious Science of Life In The Void) - Mary Roach, ★★★★★

5. Hard Eight (Stephanie Plum #8) - Janet Evanovich, ★★★

6. The Odds of Loving Grover Cleveland - Rebekah Crane, ★★★

7. 1984 - George Orwell, ★★★★

8. To The Nines (Stephanie Plum #9), ★★★

9. At Night We Walk In Circles - Daniel Alarcón, ★★★★

10. Ten Big Ones (Stephanie Plum #10) - Janet Evanovich, ★★

11. We Were the Lucky Ones - Georgia Hunter, ★★★★

12. Eleven on Top (Stephanie Plum #11) - Janet Evanovich, ★★

13. Twelve Sharp (Stephanie Plum #12) - Janet Evanovich, ★★★★

14. Lean Mean Thirteen (Stephanie Plum #13) - Janet Evanovich, ★★★

15. The Shelf Life of Happiness - David Machado, ★★★

16. Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War - Mary Roach, ★★★★

17. Paper Boats - Dee Lestari, ★★★★

18. Hemingway Didn’t Say That: The Truth Behind Familiar Quotations - Garson O’Toole, ★★

19. Shatter Me (Shatter Me #1) - Tahereh Mafi, ★★★★

20. Unravel Me (Shatter me #2) - Tahereh Mafi, ★★★

21. Unite Me (Shatter Me #1.5 & 2.5) - Tahereh Mafi, ★★

22. Ignite Me (Shatter Me #3) - Tahereh Mafi, ★★★

23. American Gods - Neil Gaiman, ★★★

24. Wives of War - Soraya Lane, ★★★

25. The Special Power of Restoring Lost Things - Courtney Elizabeth Mauk, ★★

26. Fearless Fourteen (Stephanie Plum #14) - Janet Evanovich, ★★★

27. Finger Lickin’ Fifteen (Stephanie Plum #15) - Janet Evanovich, ★★★

28. Sizzling Sixteen (Stephanie Plum #16) - Janet Evanovich, ★★★

29. Smoking Seventeen (Stephanie Plum #17) - Janet Evanovich, ★★★

30. The Epic Crush of Genie Lo - F.C. Lee, ★★★★

31. Word By Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries - Kory Stamper, ★★★★

32. Explosive Eighteen (Stephanie Plum #18) - Janet Evanovich, ★★

33. Little Fires Everywhere - Celeste Ng, ★★★★★

34. The Dark Prophecy (The Trials of Apollo #2) - Rick Riordan, ★★★★

35. Notorious Nineteen (Stephanie Plum #19) - Janet Evanovich, ★★

36. Young Jane Young - Gabrielle Zevin, ★★★★

37. Takedown Twenty (Stephanie Plum #20) - Janet Evanovich, ★★★

38. Warcross (Warcross #1) - Marie Lu, ★★★★

39. Sourdough - Robin Sloan, ★★★★

40. La Belle Sauvage (The Book Of Dust #1) - Philip Pullman, ★★★★

41. Voyager (Outlander #3) - Diana Gabaldon, ★★★★

42. Feedback (Newsflesh #4) - Mira Grant, ★★★★

43. Top Secret Twenty-one (Stephanie Plum #21) - Janet Evanovich, ★★

44. Exit West - Mohsin Hamid, ★★★★★

45. Bonfire - Krysten Ritter, ★★★★

46. Artemis - Andy Weir, ★★

47. The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror (Pine Cove #3) - Christopher Moore, ★★★

48. Mrs. Fletcher - Tom Perotta, ★★★

**WARNING** SPOILERS BELOW!

1. The Hidden Oracle (The Trials of Apollo #1) - Rick Riordan, ★★★★ Here's the thing. I know these are middle school books, HOWEVER some of my favorite modern literary characters have come from Riordan's Demigod books and this one contains the return of two of my favorites. I'm glad that he's continuing to write them, though I wish he would up the reading level, as I'm sure a lot of his readers are into YA levels now. An easy start for the new year! Progress: January 1, 2017 – Started Reading January 4, 2017 – Finished Reading

2. Dragon Fly in Amber (Outlander #2) - Diana Gabaldon, ★★★★ I must admit, I enjoyed this one much more than the first (a surprise, considering I wasn't a huge fan of season 2 of the show). It deals a lot more with history and the coming together of the Rising, which was more interesting than I expected. The ending was still incredibly sad and hopeful (as I did expect) and got me right in the heart. Progress: January 5, 2017 – Started Reading January 6, 2017 –page 79. "This book is long af. I was surprised to see a big reveal for a character (if you could call it that, I guess) in the first chapter. Oh the differences between tv writing and novels." January 12, 2017 –page 389. "Dude just pulled a snake out of his pocket like it was no thing. Wtf was happening in France?! Don't keep snakes in your jackets, gents. That is weird af." January 14, 2017 –page 521 "Sudden POV shift to Jaime is odd and unexpected. It seems that it's just in chunks? Makes it feel uneven." January 15, 2017 – Finished Reading

3. Seven Up (Stephanie Plum #7) - Janet Evanovich, ★★★ Stephanie is bad at her job, these are super formulaic and there's a standard love triangle, yet I can't stop reading these. They are the potato chip of bounty hunter novels. Progress: January 16, 2017 – Started Reading January 18, 2017 – Finished Reading

4. Packing For Mars: The Curious Science of Life In The Void - Mary Roach, ★★★★★ Full of science, humor and a lot of information I never thought to ask about space. Mary Roach is my favorite science writer, quite possibly my favorite non-fiction writer. Stiff will probably always be my favorite of her books, but I think this is tied for 2nd with Gulp. Progress: January 19, 2017 – Started Reading January 19, 2017 – Shelved January 20, 2017 – page 133 "It's things like, "buttocks are nature's safety foam" that make me love Mary Roach's books. Give me all the facts in amusing and easily digestable prose!" January 24, 2017 – Finished Reading

5. Hard Eight (Stephanie Plum #8) - Janet Evanovich, ★★★ I figure since this book came out over 13 years ago, spoilers don't count, so I'm not going to put this under a cut, but at least a warning. WARNING. Stephanie is still terrible at her job, goes through cars more often than she buys tanks of gas, but at least she FINALLY BANGED RANGER. Unfortunately we only got a paragraph of explanation, which does not do justice to his apparent sexiness. (For the record, I'm still Team Cupcake.) This one did feel a bit different, as she wasn't money-driven to solve the case. It does lend her a bit more... humanity? Progress: January 25, 2017 – Started Reading January 25, 2017 – page 94 "Gdi Stephanie, if you're going to handcuff a FTA to your car, DON'T LEAVE THE KEYS IN IT. I swear 😒 is the only face I make when reading these." January 26, 2017 – page 128 "AGAIN with the wedging herself into a car. A Honda CR-V is a gd suv. Despite Stephanie being repulsed by her 'stomach roll', unless she has the seat very far up, doubtful considering she is also tall, she would not need to wedge herself into the front seat of an suv. Ughhhhhh. 😒" January 27, 2017 – Finished Reading

6. The Odds of Loving Grover Cleveland - Rebekah Crane, ★★★ I got this as a Kindle First Read and decided to read it as a filler between trips to the library. It proved to be a very quick read, and reminded me of Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher, though they aren't really that similar. (I had conflicting feelings about that one, too.) I think it does downplay mental illness, but does a good job of showcasing the power of friendship (less cheesy than it sounds), being there, and how tenuous that can be. Progress: January 28, 2017 – Started Reading January 29, 2017 – Finished Reading

7. 1984 - George Orwell, ★★★★ It's pretty clear why everyone is suddenly re-reading this. It's not going to save us though. Progress: January 29, 2017 – Started Reading January 31, 2017 – page 81 ""The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command. His heart sank as he thought of the enormous power arrayed against him..." #alarminglyrelevant" February 4, 2017 – page 199 "I know it's been years since I read this, but did I really just conveniently forget how wordy and dense it was? Oof." February 5, 2017 – Finished Reading

8. To The Nines (Stephanie Plum #9), ★★★ Finally some real character development! Or at least acknowledgement from Stephanie that she has learned things (wearing sensible shoes) and that she feels lackluster in her performance. It was interesting to see her finally evaluate her life outside of who she is as a romantic partner (I know that the romance is a big part of the series, but still). And it was nice to see Vinnie be a little less creepy and explore some different bond types. Progress: February 6, 2017 – Started Reading February 6, 2017 – page 32 "Not really sure how I feel about Stephanie's hatred of a lady she just met, especially considering it seems to tie in with how she looks. Uncomfortable." February 7, 2017 – page 248 "For the second time, Stephanie has mentioned having sensible shoes on in case she has to run. She IS getting better!" February 8, 2017 – Finished Reading

9. At Night We Walk In Circles - Daniel Alarcón, ★★★★ A winding novel with an unexpected ending. I really had no idea what it was going to be about, but I had read Lost City Radio in 07 or 08 for my Writers on Writing class and enjoyed it quite a bit and was excited to see that he had written another novel. Progress: February 8, 2017 – Started Reading February 18, 2017 – Finished Reading

10. Ten Big Ones (Stephanie Plum #10) - Janet Evanovich, ★★ I have a lot of issues with this one. First the good: Ranger and the tiny peek into his life. And the return of Sally Sweet!! The bad: This one feels pretty racist with all of the gang bits. Stephanie seems to suffer no consequences for her terrible actions and she continues to suck at her job. Despite her constant refusal to get a different job, there are times where she's is pretty lackadaisical when it comes to actually doing it. There were A LOT of questionable things that happened, some really awful and terrible things, and at the end everyone is like, "lol, nbd." ARE YOU KIDDING ME. Actions have consequences, unless you're at the end of a Plum novel, I guess. Progress: February 18, 2017 – Started Reading February 22, 2017 – page 181 "So much fat shaming/ guilt happening right now I want to stop reading. This is the part of 'chick lit' that I loathe. Way to reinforce stereotypes. At the same time, if your character is going to eat a dozen donuts a day, she should know that she's going to gain weight and be on the lookout for diabetes because that's is just unhealthy." February 23, 2017 - page 226 "Jfc Stephanie, this is the worst idea, ever. If I didn't know the series was continuing, I'd think this is how the character got killed off." February 24, 2017 – Finished Reading

11. We Were the Lucky Ones - Georgia Hunter, ★★★★ Oh, my heart. This was pretty difficult for me to start, mostly because I didn't want to get too attached to characters that were bound to have a horrific end. However, once it gets going (ie, all the terrible things start happening), it goes pretty quickly. I don't know if if any one novel can encapsulate the spanning horror of the Holocaust, and I appreciate (not sure if that's the right word) that Hunter went for a more focused approach, scattering milestone dates within the story. Progress: February 25, 2017 – Started Reading March 8, 2017 – Finished Reading

12. Eleven on Top (Stephanie Plum #11) - Janet Evanovich, ★★ :Deep, prolonged, exasperated sigh: Stephanie, Stephanie, Stephanie. I'm so glad you're a fictional character, because I'm pretty sure I'd hate you if you were real. AND YET, I can't stop reading these. I blame Morelli and Ranger. Progress: March 9, 2017 – Started Reading March 11, 2017 – Finished Reading

13. Twelve Sharp (Stephanie Plum #12) - Janet Evanovich, ★★★★ FINALLY. A story I liked! We get a lot of Ranger in this one, a pretty decent story, and none of Stephanie's cars blow up! She's competent and not as silly. I was wrong about the 'turning point' moment! Finally, finally, finally. Progress: March 13, 2017 – Started Reading March 15, 2017 – page 201 "There's usually a point in each of the novels where I think, 'that is how everything is going to go to hell.' This one is leaving her gd panic button at the office and skipping town to get away from "scary stuff" and Ranger, while someone is trying to KILL HER." March 17, 2017 – Finished Reading

14. Lean Mean Thirteen (Stephanie Plum #13) - Janet Evanovich, ★★★ I had issues with some of the motives in this one (especially with Joyce) and I continue to be annoyed that Morelli and Ranger pass Stephanie between them while 'protecting' her. The ending seemed a bit trite, but at least her car died in a normal way. Not entirely sure how I feel about her constantly complaining about her job. But perhaps I'm expecting too much. Progress: March 22, 2017 – Started Reading April 1, 2017 – Finished Reading

15. The Shelf Life of Happiness - David Machado, ★★★ I got this as a Kindle First read, so I wasn't really sure what I was getting into. I liked it well enough. I definitely wanted more of the story, the end felt kind of abrupt. Progress: April 26, 2017 – Started Reading May 7, 2017 – Finished Reading

16. Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War - Mary Roach, ★★★★ Though not my favorite of Roach's books (that will always go to Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers), I found this a lot more interesting than I thought I would because it's about subjects I wouldn't have immediately thought of when thinking, 'war.' A lot of the 'gross' that Roach does so well, (who thinks about diarrhea when fighting a battle?) along with textile science and shark repellent. Progress: May 9, 2017 – Started Reading May 18, 2017 – Finished Reading

17. Paper Boats - Dee Lestari, ★★★★ I ended up loving this book a lot more than I expected it to. It's very sweet. The characters are charming and likeable. It does a very good job of capturing the awkward personal growth that happens during college and how it affects relationships. I thought I could feel a bit of Tiffany Tsao in her translation, at least I found some similarities to her novel. I can certainly see why Lestari is such a popular writer in Indonesia. One of the best Kindle First books I've read. Progress: May 18, 2017 – Started Reading May 23, 2017 – Finished Reading

18. Hemingway Didn’t Say That: The Truth Behind Familiar Quotations - Garson O’Toole, ★★ Oof. I will say that this is very well researched. Clearly a lot of time and effort went into finding the origins of these quotes, and I do appreciate that. However, I am not a fan of how the information is presented. Most of it feels pretentious ("QI feels...") and stiff. To be completely honest, I don't read many nonfiction books for a similar reason, so it's purely opinion. Progress: May 24, 2017 – Started Reading May 24, 2017 – 1.0% "Holy pretentiousness Batman... This might be rough to get through, but I really love quotes..." May 24, 2017 – 2.0% "There's faulty information on the Internet?! YOU DON'T SAY. (It is possible that I'm not the target generation for this intro.)" May 25, 2017 – 11.0% "Maybe I don't like quotes as much as I thought I did." May 28, 2017 – page 59 14.9% "My last year of college, I wrote this play about a blogger loosely based on my life. I had a draft due, so I pulled a few of my own blog posts, pasted them in some strategic places and turned it in. Almost all the feedback I got was about how the blog posts didn't make sense with the rest of the writing, probably because I didn't bother to edit them. That's how I feel about some of these entries" June 12, 2017 – page 241 60.86% "Not that it's important, but I have no idea what POV is being used here. Sometimes it feels like second person, and others third? All readers know that the writer is from QI, so separating them seems awkward. Oh well." June 19, 2017 – Finished Reading

19. Shatter Me (Shatter Me #1) - Tahereh Mafi, ★★★★ I have to say, I was pretty surprised by this novel. The premise is not new (dystopia, boy meets girl, etc, etc), but Mafi has a very distinct and different writing style that I find quite enjoyable. It's different. I imagine a lot of people hate it? There's several instances where people are commenting on Juliette's body that are gross and super off-putting. I'm hoping this is something that diminishes in further novels. SPOILER: The best part was the end though, SURPRISE IT'S JUST A SUPERHERO ORIGIN STORY. All of a sudden we're in this weird X-Men/Inhumans universe and I am so here for it. Looking forward to reading the rest. Progress: June 21, 2017 – Started Reading June 25, 2017 – Finished Reading

20. Unravel Me (Shatter me #2) - Tahereh Mafi, ★★★ Basically everything I expected to happen, did happen. Ughhhhhh. Progress: June 28, 2017 – Started Reading July 1, 2017 – 30.0% "So far, most of this has been angst and trying to make Warner and Juliette seem So Similar. It makes me want to barf." July 2, 2017 – 64.0% "Every time I read YA novels I always think how I would never want to be a teen again. The angst and drama and omg." July 2, 2017 – Finished Reading

21. Unite Me (Shatter Me #1.5 & 2.5) - Tahereh Mafi, ★★ Destroy Me: I do not understand people's love for Warner. I'm going to put this under a spoiler cut, just in case. SPOILER: He's the embodiment of entitled masculinity. He wants Juliette even though: he doesn't really know her, she hates him, he thinks she'll 'save him, and that he deserves her. It's gross. He literally kidnapped her after stalking her. He manipulated her on more than one occasion, bordering on torture, just to see what she was capable of. And now he's reading her diary/book as though he has the right to know those thoughts. His image of Juliette has been stripped of all agency. I don't care that he has qualms about what the Reestablishment is doing. I don't care that he seems to care about the citizens in his sector (also creepy). I don't care that he's possibly losing his grip on reality. I'm pretty sure he's going to turn over to the Omega's side in later installments so that he can get some kind of redemption arc, and then there might be a love triangle (BARF). I hope Juliette stays far away from him. I hope she never forgives him for the kidnapping, the simulation room, or his general desire to own her. Because women don't owe men anything, because we're not objects to be owned. Fracture Me: 75% of it was just a retelling of the end of Unravel Me, so that was unfortunate. I imagine it was a nice bonus to have while waiting for Ignite Me to come out, but I don't know how much it added to the the series. Progress: June 25, 2017 – Started Reading July 3, 2017 – Finished Reading

22. Ignite Me (Shatter Me #3) - Tahereh Mafi, ★★★ So, I really wanted to like this series. I really did. However, I was so disappointed in how it all played out. The characters were totally OOC in this installment. I still hate Warner, I don't care what he does. The end felt anticlimactic, though that might just be a symptom of reading too much dystopian YA novels. Pretty unsure about there being more books, but I think a lot of people will read them. Progress: July 5, 2017 – Started Reading July 5, 2017 - 6.0% "Ughhhhhhh. This is everything I Did Not Want. Warner, your 'elaborate scheme' was not for your father's benefit, it was your way to stalk her, you creepy asshat." July 6, 2017 – 10.0% "She thinks she should lead the resistance? What? Is that why she trained so hard while she was at Omega Point? Oh wait... She didn't. Excuse me while I don't believe our MC." July 8, 2017 – 29.0% "And we descend into every trope of the third YA trilogy book. I was expecting so much more than this." July 8, 2017 – Finished Reading

23. American Gods - Neil Gaiman, ★★★ I had pretty high expectations for this novel, as I'm a Gaiman fan and a lot of people rave about it. However, I found myself a bit disappointed. The imagery was probably the best part, a lot of awesome scenes were set up that would be visually stunning. I enjoyed Shadow as a character, but I expected more to happen. SPOILER: It feels like 500 pages of build up to a war that never happens. I wonder if I'm just expecting too much 'action' because of other books I've been reading. On a completely tactile note, this edition is incredibly pleasant to read. It stays open when lying on a table, and it has nice bendy covers. I bought this years ago from Borders and it's been sitting on a shelf since. Progress: July 16, 2017 – Started Reading July 22, 2017 – Finished Reading

24. Wives of War - Soraya Lane, ★★★ I actually enjoyed this more than I thought I would. Lane does a very interesting job at skirting around some of the extremes of war. There are no overly gory or visceral descriptions of wounds or death and is generally light on descriptive detail in general. People are explained in detail, (nearly everyone is very pretty or very handsome) and an occasional location will also be described. I actually prefer less description, but I could see that others may find it lacking. This novel is very much about emotions, and considering the subject matter, it makes sense. I found myself wanting less telling and more showing in some cases. What I did find very interesting is the gender politics that were in play. WWII is a fascinating time to explore it, what was expected of our three main 'girls,' how they either defied or followed them, and what it meant after the war was over. It gets a little schmaltzy sometimes, but I'm willing to forgive that. SPOILERS: The Thomas situation is very difficult, considering PTSD wasn't 'a thing' yet, but they did acknowledge combat neurosis. But it pained me to see Scarlet battered, and still feel that she couldn't leave, that she was required to stay with him. And for Thomas's life to come to such a tragic end. It was hard to read, but also expected. And they totally say The Thing at the end. Progress: July 24, 2017 – Started Reading July 28, 2017 – Finished Reading

25. The Special Power of Restoring Lost Things - Courtney Elizabeth Mauk, ★★ I'm not really sure what to say beyond that I just didn't like it. It's possible I would have liked it more if I had read it before Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng (they have similar plots, but beyond that, they have little in common). I didn't like any of the characters, though I did feel some empathy towards Drew and Ben. Carol was completely unlikable, though perhaps that was the point? I certainly don't understand her actions. I found myself wishing I knew more about Jennifer, maybe it would justify the reactions of her family more. It is a very quick read, though. Progress: July 31, 2017 – Started Reading August 1, 2017 – Finished Reading

26. Fearless Fourteen (Stephanie Plum #14) - Janet Evanovich, ★★★ I still keep expecting Stephanie (and Lula?) to get better at their jobs. Adding the kid in to this novel was a nice change, glad to see Mooner back too, even though Stephanie is judges them very harshly. I'm mostly reading these to get caught back up on my reading goal. They're easy to read and mostly amusing. Progress: August 2, 2017 – Started Reading August 2, 2017 – page 8 "I was excited to get back to these novels, but less than 10 pages in and Stephanie is hardcore judging a kid for having piercings. COME ON. This was written in 2008. Let's move on from the 'bad people have tattoos and piercings' stereotypes please. He better turn out to be a stellar kid and she feels bad about judging him." August 4, 2017 – Finished Reading

27. Finger Lickin’ Fifteen (Stephanie Plum #15) - Janet Evanovich, ★★★ I mostly didn't care about the story in this one. It feels like Lula is becoming more of a caricature in every book, which makes me kind of sad. Not everything needs to be so over the top. Not everything needs to catch fire. Relatively anticlimactic ending. Progress: August 4, 2017 – Started Reading August 6, 2017 – Finished Reading

28. Sizzling Sixteen (Stephanie Plum #16) - Janet Evanovich, ★★★ I liked this one a bit more than the last few, it was sort of nice to have Vinnie around again (even though he's pretty terrible). I did notice several spelling and editing errors, which was kind of strange. Progress: August 7, 2017 – Started Reading August 9, 2017 – Finished Reading

29. Smoking Seventeen (Stephanie Plum #17) - Janet Evanovich, ★★★ I'm getting too used to reading Plum novels, and I'm figuring them out too early. Enjoyable enough, though there are a few things that are starting to get on me. Glad she finally hooked up with Ranger again. Real tired of the, "I love two men, isn't that just *ca-raaazyyy*" idea. It's not crazy? You can love two people at a time. Dave was creepy af. Progress: August 14, 2017 – Started Reading August 16, 2017 – page 144 "Come on Steph, you can connect the dots better than this..." August 16, 2017 – page 286 "Dots finally connected. Took ya long enough." August 16, 2017 – page 300 "She literally just said 'connect the dots to [character], hahahah. I think I've read too many Plum books in a row." August 16, 2017 – Finished Reading

30. The Epic Crush of Genie Lo - F.C. Lee, ★★★★ YESSSSS SOMETHING DIFFERENT. I really hope we get more Genie Lo books, because I would read many more novels of her kicking demon ass. Progress: August 16, 2017 – Started Reading September 4, 2017 – Finished Reading

31. Word By Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries - Kory Stamper, ★★★★ Even though this took me ages to get through, I really enjoyed it. I've been getting the M-W Word of The Day email for years and was very excited when they announced this book. It definitely helped me realize that the dictionary is not the final say on English, but just a record of how we use it. The bit on dialect is my favorite (and would have gladly read more about it!), followed closely by the discussion of 'nude'. I certainly have a better appreciation of dictionaries and lexicographers. Progress: August 16, 2017 – Started Reading September 21, 2017 – Finished Reading

32. Explosive Eighteen (Stephanie Plum #18) - Janet Evanovich, ★★ While I appreciate the change in narrative structure (slowly presenting information instead of all at once), it's still a Plum novel and feels a little bit out of touch. Poor Lula deserves more than a caricature characterization. I want to know more about Connie. The love triangle is getting old, mostly because Stephanie is stuck in some pretty outdated notions of how her life is supposed to be. It could be said that I'm rather liberal, and I'm looking into too much, but Lula can be more than just a former ho. Stop describing her outfits with such disdain. I just... expect more from a book published in 2011. Progress: September 19, 2017 – Started Reading September 27, 2017 – Shelved

33. Little Fires Everywhere - Celeste Ng, ★★★★★ My. Heart. Ng is a truly gifted storyteller. Though perhaps it feels like a story that has been told before (maybe many stories that have been told before), it's such a nice, solid, slow build. I find myself wondering about the characters, and how their lives played out after the novel ended. Progress: September 1, 2017 – Shelved September 27, 2017 –page 1 "I was the first person in my library to get this and I AM VERY EXCITED" October 3, 2017 – Finished Reading

34. The Dark Prophecy (The Trials of Apollo #2) - Rick Riordan, ★★★★ Though Apollo is super annoying (on purpose, I assume) and there wasn't enough of Nico DiAngelo, my Sweet Baby Death Prince (aka, no appearance and only a single mention), I enjoyed this. I love Leo, and I'm warming up to Calypso. I find Meg very interesting, especially because she doesn't fall into 'girly' stereotypes, SPOILERS also her dealing with the abuse from her stepfather is an important thing for novels to address. However, I'm all about the Waystation. I want an entire series about it, and its inhabitants and the travelers passing through. And as cheesy as it sounds, my favorite part of all of Riordan's series is how he reps families of all types. <3 Progress: October 3, 2017 – Started Reading October 7, 2017 – Finished Reading

35. Notorious Nineteen (Stephanie Plum #19) - Janet Evanovich, ★★ I know that these are meant to be light reading, but that doesn't mean they can't be better. Stereotypes and problematic behavior (and speech, and expectations...) shouldn't be the norm. Progress October 11, 2017 – Started Reading October 12, 2017 – page 72 "I don't know if I'm just noticing it more, or judging more harshly because this book was written in 2012, but there's a lot of things that are problematic af in this. I've stopped counting the moments of casual racism, but some old dude is groping Stephanie and all that happens is she and Ranger switch seats? Hell. No." October 13, 2017 – page 103 "Threatening someone with a fake rape and groping accusation? Wtaf, Evanovich. That is not okay." October 14, 2017 –page 292 "An Arthur Beasley and a Simon Diggery? Someone finally read Harry Potter." October 14, 2017 – Finished Reading

36. Young Jane Young - Gabrielle Zevin, ★★★★ Though lacking the emotional gut-punch of A.J. Fikry, this was still an excellent novel. SPOILERS: I think what I really took away from this was the severe inequity between men and women. Jane's career was destroyed completely, while the Senator went on, with barely a blip. Obviously this is very reflective of our society, which is all too apparent these days, and it's one of those things that gets me in the heart. I know life isn't fair, but damn. Progress: October 14, 2017 – Started Reading October 16, 2017 – Finished Reading

37. Takedown Twenty (Stephanie Plum #20) - Janet Evanovich, ★★★ I don't know why I keep doing this to myself. This one seemed a little bit less problematic at the beginning, and then just went off the rails with the racist stereotypes and constant slut shaming. Ugh. Progress: October 16, 2017 – Started Reading October 18, 2017 – page 122 "Evanovich really has something against fat people. She points out everyone's weight, and just made a show about how a woman who weighs "upward of 200" has wrists that are too big for regular handcuffs. I call BS." October 20, 2017 - page 210 "For the love of all things holy, STOP SLUT-SHAMING LULA." October 20, 2017 – Finished Reading

38. Warcross (Warcross #1) - Marie Lu, ★★★★ Well hello Marie Lu, why haven't I read your novels before?! Warcross is like an amalgamation of Ready Player One and Quidditch with the added bonus of POC characters and a female MC (awww yeaaaahhhh). I expected the end, but it's not going to deter me from reading the rest of the series. Progress: October 20, 2017 – Started Reading October 23, 2017 – Finished Reading

39. Sourdough - Robin Sloan, ★★★★ Confession: I love stuff about San Francisco, and this was no exception. It was a little weird and a little magical, very much like the city herself. Though I guess this technically took place in more than just SF proper. However, the descriptions of Clement St, took me right back there and made me wish I could stop and get some Pad Thai from King of Thai Noodle House #2 and a Genki strawberry and nutella crepe. ::sigh:: Memories. It also made me want to learn how to bake bread. I think what I enjoy most about Sloan's writing is that I'm not quite sure what I'm about to get into, but I'll believe it when I'm there. Progress: October 23, 2017 – Started Reading October 25, 2017 – page 168 "I think I love Beoreg." October 26, 2017 – Finished Reading

40. La Belle Sauvage (The Book Of Dust #1) - Philip Pullman, ★★★★ I am a HUGE fan of the original trilogy, and I was scared/excited to learn that Pullman was going to return to this world with more novels. I was not disappointed. A likable new MC (::cough:: UnlikeLyra ::cough::), adventures, mystery, a little bit of terror, and a few hints about Dust! I likely should have re-read the original trilogy before I read this, but honestly I didn't have the patience. I was the first person in my library to read this copy, and it's a beautiful edition. Progress: October 26, 2017 – Started Reading October 26, 2017 – page 1 "I AM SO EXCITED FOR THIS" November 4, 2017 – Finished Reading

41. Voyager (Outlander #3) - Diana Gabaldon, ★★★★ Oh man, what a long read... I found this one much more interesting than the first two, maybe because it was a more complex story. The jumping around of POVs is a bit distracting, as it takes a bit to realize who is talking at the beginning of each bit. But I managed to breeze through this a bit easier than I thought I would, considering how much I struggled through the second one. Bring on more Jamie Fraser, please. Progress: November 5, 2017 – Started Reading November 5, 2017 – page 1 "This book is a long one. o.O Here goes..." November 11, 2017 – page 564 "Was it necessary to give Mr. Willoughby a foot fetish? Really?" November 15, 2017 – Finished Reading

42. Feedback (Newsflesh #4) - Mira Grant, ★★★★ It should be said that I'm a sucker for the Newsflesh series, and would gladly read anything in the canon. I found this to be a very good addition to the original trilogy. I like that it was way more diverse, with a lot of effort put into those differences (pronoun use!!). I wish I had re-read the trilogy before I read it, it's been a while and I found myself forgetting a lot of little things that had happened. I don't know if it diminished it, but a fresher read would have added a lot more to the story. I think what I really appreciated is that it sounded different from the Mason's POV. Ash has a different way of forming her thoughts and sentences, and it showed. What I didn't like so much was the over-explaining (maybe over-defending?) what it meant to be an Irwin, and to some extent a Newsie and Fictional. That might be because I have read the OG trilogy several times and I didn't feel the need to have it explained. Also, not once was Kellis-Amberlee shortened to KA, which seemed odd. This is a world steeped in a disease, and I find it hard to believe that an entire team of bloggers wouldn't shorten it, same with all of the politicians. (I mean, we live in a world with the flu, and does anyone other than doctors call it influenza?) Progress: November 16, 2017 – Started Reading November 22, 2017 – Finished Reading

43. Top Secret Twenty-one (Stephanie Plum #21) - Janet Evanovich, ★★I think I need to stop reading these... Forever disappointed, forever annoyed by the awful stereotypes, fat shaming and repetitive storylines. Progress: November 23, 2017 – Started Reading November 26, 2017 – Finished Reading

44. Exit West - Mohsin Hamid, ★★★★★ A beautifully told story. Some nice, unexpected aspects, sweeping prose that's almost poetic and a very satisfying ending. Ah, lovely. Progress: November 27, 2017 – Started Reading November 29, 2017 – Finished Reading

45. Bonfire - Krysten Ritter, ★★★★ I definitely picked this up because it's Krysten Ritter, who, in my head will always be Gia Goodman first and Jessica Jones second. And oddly enough, this felt like an amalgamation of Veronica Mars and Jessica Jones, especially in the characterization of Abby. I ended up liking it a lot more than I thought I would, though it's not anything amazingly new. There are parts that I was less impressed with, but it was a quick read and I hope she writes more. BIG SPOILER AHEAD: I think the characters could have been fleshed out more, I found myself wanting more from Abby, more of her life in Chicago, why she feels the need to drink herself into oblivion to sleep... A little more in the explanation would have been nice too. It felt to quick and tidy. Not to mention the very obvious 'twist.' IT'S ALWAYS THE GUY YOU CONFESS TO. Ughhhhhhh. Progress: December 4, 2017 – Started Reading December 6, 2017 – Finished Reading

46. Artemis - Andy Weir, ★★ I wanted to like this, I really did, but I found it lacking. The storyline was good and a little different because moon stuff, but I guess I expected a lot more. I can see why a lot of people love this, and why it's ending up on a lot of 2017 best lists, it just won't be on mine. The following cut isn't really for spoilers, but just to be safe: POSSIBLE SPOILERS: I did appreciate that MC could have been a man or woman and the basic plot wouldn't change (ie the whole thing wasn't based on Jazz being a woman), HOWEVER there were a lot of bits that felt unnecessary and overly 'feminized'. I didn't believe some of her language, and some of her mental wanderings seemed really forced (when I'm in a stressful situation, I don't imagine what the dude next to me looks like while working out... "Hey, I'm a girl, it's allowed", etc). Weir has a section in the acknowledgements about the people who helped him capture a female narrator, and I think they failed him a little bit. Why is everyone overly interested in her sex life? Do people just go around commenting on how many sexual partners you have on the moon, because that's just how 'different' society is? That seems weird AF to me. Jazz gets annoyed, but it's rude and invasive. I think some of it was supposed to play on the tension between her and Svoboda, but it just seemed awkward. Progress: December 6, 2017 – Started Reading December 8, 2017 – page 94 "Struggling to enjoy this. It feels like he's trying really hard to talk like a Woman. Which is unnecessary. It also feels like it's building up to a hull breach or fire, due to the repeated warnings of fire, and overstating of the double hull. I hope I'm wrong." December 8, 2017 – page 158 ""I was a helpless, exposed girl with no weapon" SERIOUSLY. You can't write Jazz as a supposed badass, and then pull out that drivel. I expected more." December 8, 2017 – page 178 "That wasn't a good one, it was sexist and gross. Ugh." December 8, 2017 – Finished Reading

47. The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror (Pine Cove #3) - Christopher Moore, ★★★ Not the best of Moore's novels, hardly my favorite, but a fun read for the holidays. It's a little bit wacky and makes me miss CA. Progress: December 23, 2017 – Started Reading December 26, 2017 – Finished Reading

48. Mrs. Fletcher - Tom Perotta, ★★★ I'm not totally sure how I feel about this novel. I've read Perrotta novels since I was in high school, and I don't think this is one of his strongest. However there are a few things that were well done: changes of voice and capturing the 'present day'. I'm getting better at reading new novels, but this one in particular felt very *now*. It might feel dated in the future, or, hopefully, serve and example of what life is right now. Well, maybe pre-45, but I digress. It's full of current cultural and social issues, but I sort of felt like I wanted more. And wasn't a huge fan of the ending. SPOILERS: Thank anything holy that Brendan wasn't a rapist. I thought Perrotta was leaning pretty heavily toward that, and he got dangerously close to assault. Maybe I just wasn't ready to handle it, but it would have made it so much worse. I'm not really sure how we're supposed to view Brendan. Are we supposed to feel bad that he's completely clueless about how to treat women, or are we supposed to dislike him for being totally oblivious? I will say that a lot of the situations made me think about my own assumptions (I would definitely take the Gender and Society class that Eve took), so there's that. Progress: December 26, 2017 – Started Reading December 28, 2017 – Finished Reading

#book list 2017 #book reviews #reading list 2017

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bleederziine · 6 years

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Reaching Out: An Interview w/Pool Holograph

The first time I saw Pool Holograph they were opening for The Walters at their famed (at least in my tiny Chicago/surrounding suburbs college student music scene) show at Lincoln Hall. As someone who was there specifically for The Walters, to give Luke a sweater that anyone who ever reads this tiny blog already knows about, I was surprised by what a great show they put on. It was artful, chaotic, immersive, and for a first band on a lineup of four, I thought it was quite impressive that they gave it their all, instead of phoning it in like many other openers I’ve seen who are too caught up in the construct of not being the “headliner.” Read more in the interview below and enjoy some of my favorite photos I’ve taken so far to hear about their often entertaining thoughts on art, music, and themselves.

Paul: How was the tall boy?

Zach: I chugged it down as fast as I could. It was not great.

Wyatt: I chugged mine really fast because I was really excited to come over but now I’m kinda drunk right now.

SUB/VERSE: You’ll be more honest!

Wyatt: Yeah, right…

Paul: Well Wyatt’s a compulsive liar

Wyatt: I’m more like a ridiculous liar. I accidentally tell the truth and overtly falsify everything else.

SUB/VERSE: So how did the band start?

Wyatt: We were just talking about this recently! I feel like us getting together was we had a good little start with me and Zach having a collaborative element, but now its this new band that has stemmed from this little stream that I think ended up flourishing through that kaleidoscope effect when you get more people in the room. Going from there it just elaborates on ideas. We were just saying that you can do your own thing, but you can’t possibly capture what everyone else is doing, I couldn’t manufacture what anyone else does in the band, and i think everyone else feels the same way about themselves in the band. Pool Holograph kind of started with the self titled “Pool Holograph” album I put out, in 2009-10. I just put it on the internet without any plans to perform. That as a project was the first songwriting project I did, which was something about openness and exploring. Its kind of how life goes, it comes in kind of unexpected ways that give you motivation. I like to look at it as the band started when we all decided to get in the same room. When I think about Pool Holograph now I think about all of us. I like to think about it as a state. This artist Philip Guston was asked why he made art, and he was like, I just want to stay in this state. He’s saying that state is about a moment, about getting back to that state, not thinking about all the shit you’ve been through. I don’t know if that’s too long an answer, but I just get really excited about this stuff. Music is crazy!

SUB/VERSE: What do you write most about in the band?

Zach: Thats all Wyatt really. I think the reasons we’re all interested in music, there’s sort of a movement in each release of music. We want to keep exploring different ideas and figuring out what it means to do that.

Wyatt: I think recently its been about more lucid authorship, being more tangible, more direct. I’ve seen songwriting in the past a lot like a diary, just venting and trying to get outside of your head. Being like, this is me! I totally relate! Its the same reason you make art as a kid, like a Avril Lavigne collage or something, like “yeah, sick! I totally get you and you get me!” The artists we really like are ones that are kind of reaching outside themselves, or what they know themselves to be. But more to answer you question, the kind of stuff this album is about is the outside world, and relating to the outside world, and things you don’t understand, and relating to others. With each song, its not a different struggle for each one, its not that concrete like a concept album, but Transparent World is about being able to see through everything in a way, and being able to see into yourself and to… its really tough to describe. On a concrete level, you can be like, this one is about car rides, or a spooky dream, or an argument…

Paul: I feel like there’s a lot of anxiety in the songs, and your relationship with the outside world, and dealing with your inner self.

Wyatt: Anxiety is a word we see in a lot of reviews for the music. I hate the idea of being super cryptic. With this album, I tried to, like, pick a color, like how do you want to describe this? And make some sort of effort to be more specific so people can relate to you.

Jake: I feel like its a constant struggle to describe what the music means to us. You think you have an idea about what it might be, but its not easy to just nail down. Playing wise I think its like an airplane, like you’re on the runway and you speed up and then you’re in the zone and you understand it or you don’t but you’re with all your friends and you know what each other’s doing.

Wyatt: You kind of have a feeling for the parameters and discussion of the song. Talking about a specific song, the first one, Codex Hammer, the way that was written is it was supposed to be very thin and light and see through. Its kind of a precursor to the rest of the album, like here’s your debrief: you’re in this place right now where no one will be able to understand you and you can’t necessarily understand anyone else. Hammer codex, or Hammer lee caster is Leonardo da vinci’s diary. I thought by switching around the words, codex being a book, and hammer being like a forceful objector, a book as a forceful object. Thats kind of how you experience life, you’re constantly barraged. The part of the song where its like, “expecting a hand on your palace gates/ expecting physical contact on your palace gates/but you had a hammer coming” is like, the forces of the world have no regard for your intake. So what you do with it is up to you and within your faculties. Its important that as an individual, what you do is sacred.

Zach: Part of remaining active is staying malleable to whatever facets of your life are hitting you the hardest. Those are the things you have to deal with the fastest.

Wyatt: I think malleable is a good word, because we all like to have fun when we’re writing, and kind of mess with each other. I’m pointing to Jake because I mess with him a lot! I get in his face a lot and climb all over his drums. I don’t really see that as a rock n roll kind of thing anymore. I see myself as a mountain goat, just propping myself up and feeling good. I don’t know why! About two years ago, almost to the day, we played a Halloween show. We were a custoomed band, as the nihilists from the Big Lubowski, all in black, and I had a fake ferret. When I jumped on Jake’s drums, I jumped on him because my shoes were too slippery and while I was jumping I got scared and just jumped on him. Then I kicked out the drum set, and realized it wasn’t our drum set! I had to get on the mic and apologize, which is the most un- rock n roll thing ever! It was fun for other people though. I hate the idea that you have to listen back to this, I just keep rambling!

No its fine! When I called Alex from the Modern Vices the first thing he asked was whether the interview would be published as a podcast because he was nervous about how he’d sound! I was like you’re a singer but okay!

Paul: We had a really painful Chirp interview that I can’t listen back to…

Zach: We were so stressed out.

Wyatt: I started talking about Bob Dylan and i had no idea what I was saying.

SUB/VERSE: Well I hate listening back to these because I sound like a pre pubescent boy on recordings!

Wyatt: You gotta own that! I sound like Peter Pan’s dog, like the character no one wants to hear from.

Jake: I don’t hate my voice.

SUB/VERSE: So I read that some guys in the band went to Saic? When do you think music is art, what makes it not art…?

Wyatt: Thats a good question...its all in tandem, its all the same exact thing. Same process, although they have different limitations with the way society sees it. You can do really socially unacceptable things on stage, and you can do different socially unacceptable things on a page. I didn’t mean for that to rhyme, or sound like a quote or anything! (in gruff Keith Richards type voice) Whether its on a stage or a page, I rock the show! Make sure you include the stogie puff. Anyway I don’t think its dogmatic to say they have to be in the same place, because sometimes you’re in a really sweaty room and you’re coming up with something and coming up with ideas. I mean, the activities are different but their from the same well.

Paul: I think all music is art, whether its a perfectly constructed pop song or an experimental 20 minute track. It can all affect someone.

Wyatt: Thats not to say the trajectories aren’t different. Its really beautiful how music has its own place, like, I’m going to go to a record store and put it on this device and experience it. As a listener, the experiences aren’t the same, but the authorship comes from the same primal place. I think the way we as society antiqaute these things is beautiful. I think its cool that music in some ways is off limits because theres a pull to it. I think art and music have their own worlds and angular relationships, and there are crossovers. But the clarity of those crossovers isnt necessarily for enjoying them. What do you think?

SUB/VERSE: Well I definitely think music is art. I really like thinking about people who don’t write their own music but have an interesting way of performing.

Wyatt: Yeah… there are some Andy Warhol works that he never saw or touched, and I think that was a part of his art.

Zach: I think people like that can be the vehicle for the music, and I think thats an important part of the performance part of music. Music can contextualize a moment and explain how it felt, or the time period it was written. For each person you were doing very specific things when you heard certain songs. I think thats a big part of music as an art form, its community based, and a theatrical thing.

Paul: Its crazy how some of these songs you wrote two years ago still feel weird or uncomfortable when we’re playing, or feel new. Its great when you can get a crowd going, like that Walters show was awesome, because they got everyone going crazy. Being able to strike that emotion in people is the ultimate goal of performing.

SUB/VERSE: I think its crazy when you’re at a show and the performer is directing everything, like someone jumps off a stage at specific moments or whatever.

Wyatt: But the weird part is that the performer is also being provoked by the audience! You see performances fall apart because the crowd is dead. Its bigger than all of us. And i like that. For any performer, no one is a master of it. Its a sort of intangible, unstable…

Paul: Just reacting to everything around you, taking things as they come.

Wyatt: Yeah, I like looking at music all in that same sphere. Sometimes it strikes at the right moment, and thats really cool, but its like any chemical reaction. Like oh there’s a cloud, a group of molecules, and its in the shape of a rabbit, and thats really cool! Thats phenomenal I’m going to take a picture of it!

Paul: We just stand in the formation of a rabbit onstage.

Wyatt: Its basically just us looking like a rabbit for people on nights that it works. I like to look at it like its that surrendipitous. Like Pool Holograph is a mistaken name. Turns out a holograph is a body of text, which is a weird coincidence. But its like the top of the pool, basically, and its this sort of amorphous thing, and its this one thing to look at. And its never the same for everyone, and there’s a lot of depth underneath it that no one sees. Its striking, and its going away. Its about fleeting things and I want to keep in that zone. I never want to be like, nailed it, write it down, put it in the history books! We live in a really great time to play with other great live bands and be a part of this community, and thats all you can really ask for.

INTERVIEW AND PHOTOS BY CHLOE GRAHAM

#Pool Holograph #chicago music #logan square

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stacks-reviews · 7 years

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Must Reads Special #3

Grab your favorite comfort food and an extra box of tissues. It’s time for another special edition of Must Reads. This months episode: Tears Part 1 Some of my favorite moments that will always make me cry.

--Cowboy Bebop “The futuristic misadventures and tragedies of an easygoing bounty hunter and his partners.”

Episode 24: “Hard Luck Woman” Faye comes across an elderly woman who knew her when she was younger which triggers some of her memories to return. Back at the Bebop, Ed runs into her absentee father and the rest of Faye’s memories return. As Faye leaves to find her home, she tells Ed that belonging somewhere is the best. Which prompts Ed to leave as Ein follows. Spray painting bye-bye on the ship before she leaves. As Spike and Jet eat the eggs that they had split for everyone we see Faye excitedly run up to her old home only to find nothing but ruins. She draws where her bed was and lays down.

It’s sad enough to see the Bebop crew split up like this but with “Call Me” playing in the background, it makes this scene all the more heart breaking.

Episode 18: “Speak Like A Child” Our first look into Faye’s past through a mysterious package that turns out to be a tape that she sent to herself as a child. All other music and sounds stop, except for a quiet piano in the background. As the crew looks on, Faye spying from the door, it starts of easily enough. A glimpse into what was. But what rips out my heart every time is the cheer Faye gives to herself. Faye doesn’t remember making the tape or who she was and was like. So although young Faye is telling herself not to lose, to keep trying, adult Faye has already lost (at least in terms of memory).

Young Faye: “Good morning, me. Did you sleep well? Did you wake up feeling good? Did the light, and the wind, and the smell, and the sound, all seem like they’re brand new and fresh this morning? Is each and every cell in your whole body awake and alive now? Today, you are who you are today. See? You’re still me, but you’re a newer version.…Myself ten years from now. It’s so far away; it’s almost impossible to imagine. Am I alone or is there a wonderful person next to me? Knowing me I’m sure you’re causing all kinds of trouble for lots of different people. I’m sorry, I don’t mean to, but it’s all right. That’s part of life too, isn’t it? You’re not perfect but you’ve got a lot to give, so remember: I’ll always be cheering you on. And now a big cheer from my heart. Let’s...go...me, alright! Do your best! Do your best! Don’t lose me! Let’s go, don’t lose, don’t lose me! Do your best! Do your best! Me, me, me! Don’t lose, don’t lose! Me, me, me! Go me! In your time I'm no longer here, but I am here today, and I'll always be cheering for you, right here. Cheering for you- my only self.”

--Futurama “The adventures of a late-20th-century New York City pizza delivery boy, Phili J. Fry, who, after being unwittingly cryogenically frozen for one thousand years, finds employment at Planet Express, an interplanetary delivery company in the retro-futuristic 31st century.”

Episode 2: “The Series Has Landed” Fry, Leela, Bender, and Amy head to the moon to deliver their first package as a delivery crew. The scene that makes me tear up; in more of a bitter sweet kind of feeling instead of downright sad, is when Fry and Leela are on the dark side of the moon in the Apollo 11 lander. Then this moment happens:

Fry: “Look, Leela. I’m sorry. I never should have dragged you out here.” Leela: “That’s right, you shouldn’t have. I still don’t get what the big attraction is.” Fry: “I never told anybody this, but a thousand years ago I used to look up at the moon and dream about being an astronaut. I just didn’t have the grades, or the physical endurance. Plus I threw up a lot, and nobody liked spending a week with me.” Leela: “A week would be a little much.” Fry: “The moon was like this awesome, romantic, mysterious thing, hanging up there in the sky where you could never reach it, no matter how much you wanted to. But you’re right. Once you’re actually here, it’s just a big, dull rock. I guess I just wanted you to see it through my eyes, the way I used to.” Leela: “Fry, look. It really is beautiful. I don’t know why I never noticed it before.”

It was the first scene that showed me that this show was going to be much more than a silly comedy. It would have moments like these where it becomes something beautiful.

Episode 137: “Game of Tones” A strange ship is heading toward Earth emitting four loud notes that start to cause structural damage on the planet. Fry seems to recognize the melody so they put him to sleep to explore his memories of the day he was frozen to find what was causing the melody.

I haven’t seen this episode as much as the others on my list today but I do remember the ending. As a thank you for helping save the world again Nibbler helps transport Fry to his mothers dream so he could speak to her. She mentions that she dreamed about him a lot since his disappearance and asks what he wanted to speak about. Speechless, he just hugs her and back in the year 2000 his mother wakes from her dream to Fry’s picture on her nightstand, smiles, and peacefully falls back to sleep.

Episode 56: “Leela’s Homeworld” Leela learns the truth about where she is from. She is not the only cyclops alien in existence, she is a mutant and her parents gave her up so she could have a better life on the surface. At first she believes that the two mutants killed her real parents and almost kills them when they said they did. Then Fry shows up with the note that was left with Leela when she was given away saying it was written on paper commonly used in the sewers. After the reveal Leela says that they are her parents, they embrace and everyone cries. Even Bender gives out a little aww. But what really kicks you in the feels is the montage that follows, showcasing all the ways that Leela’s family secretly looked after throughout her life. Catching her before she could fall down some stairs, leaving her cookies while she worked on homework, giving her birthday presents, and even covering her up with a blanket to this day while she slept.

Episode 36: The Luck of the Fryrish After a string of bad luck Fry wishes he had his old seven-leaf clover; that helps him beat his older brother at everything, and with the help of Leela and Bender they travel to the ruins of Old New York to see if they can find it. Amazingly his house is still there but the clover is gone and after finding a statue that looks like his brother, Yancy, with the inscription, “Philip J. Fry The Original Martian, he concludes that his brother must have stolen it and his dream to be the first person on Mars. Fry finds out where his brother is buried and decides to do a little grave-robbing to get his clover back. The episode jumps between Fry’s past and his current time. Mainly focusing on his relationship with his older brother. Showing how Yancy wanted to be named Philip and kept copying Fry.

Once they arrive at the grave Fry knocks off the moss that had covered the graves inscription. It then jumps to his older brother discussing what to name his newborn son with his wife:

Yancy: “Daddy has a present for you today. Do you know what it is? It’s a lucky clover that can help you be successful whatever you do. Even break dancing. And it once belonged to someone very special.” His wife: “I know what name you want to give him, Yancy. It’s okay.” Yancy: Really? Son, I’m naming you Philip J. Fry in honor of my little brother, who I miss every day. I love you Philip (sniff) and I always will.”

Fry (reading the inscription): “Here lies Philip J. Fry, named for his uncle, to carry on his spirit.”

The episode packs quite a punch. We spend the majority of the episode under the idea that Yancy didn’t care for Fry much. He wanted to be the one named Philip, he wanted to steal the clover, he kept copying his brother’s style, and appears to have taken over Fry’s life. And through Fry’s frustrations, we don’t care much for Yancy in the beginning. But upon later reflection we realize that Yancy actually admired and loved Fry a lot and wanted to be more like him. And I think Fry spends most of his life thinking that his brother may not have liked him and here he has irrevocable proof that his brother loved him.

Episode 61: Jurassic Bark At a fair about the 21st century Fry finds his old dog, Seymour, fossilized. With the Professor’s help they plan to clone Seymour but Bender becomes jealous and throws Seymour into lava. But realizing that Fry could love an ‘inferior creature’ and wasn’t trying to annoy him jumps into the lava to rescue Seymour before he melts. As they begin to extract Seymour’s DNA it is revealed that Seymour died at 15, 12 years after Fry was frozen, and Fry has them stop the cloning. When this happens:

Bender: “Fry, what’s wrong?” Fry: “Think about it: Seymour lived a full life after I was gone...He probably even added new songs to his repertoire.” Bender: “But that’s a good thing. “Walkin’ On Sunshine” sucks noodles.” Fry: “I had Seymour ‘till he was three. That’s when I knew him, and that’s when I loved him...I’ll never forget him...But he forgot me a long, long time ago...”

After giving Seymour one last affectionate pat goodbye it cuts to show that Seymour spent twelve years outside Panucci’s Pizza waiting for Fry to return (while ”I Will Wait for You” plays in the background). Until one day he laid down and closed his eyes.

Kills me every time. Fry thought Seymour happily moved on but he dutifully stayed there and waited for his return.

--Gattaca Gattaca is my favorite movie. And I have a lot of contenders for that position. But when it comes down to it and when I really stop and think about it, Gattaca is the first that comes to mind. I’ve looked up and thought about many of the quotes from it.

In a futuristic setting (though the present gets closer and closer to it everyday) people are born through eugenics. Born to be the best of both parts of their parents DNA. Those born in a more natural was are known as “God-child” and are discriminated against.

Vincent: “I belonged to a new underclass, no longer determined by social status or the color of your skin. No, we know have discrimination down to a science.”

Vincent is one such God-child who dreams of going to space but no one is willing to hire him due to having a high possibility of getting sick and having an estimated life span of only 30.2 years. But with the help of a genetic donor he switches places with one Jerome Eugene Marrow, a former professional swimmer who was injured in a car accident. Posing as Eugene, the fake Eugene gets a job at Gattaca and will be heading to Titan as a navigator. But a murder occurs at Gattaca and almost gets him found out when an eyelash of his real DNA is found near the scene. After evading police and the real murderer being found fake Eugene is all set to go to Titan. Only to find a new security DNA check before loading. Not having any extra samples of real Eugene, fake Eugene is found out by the doctor that has always done the DNA tests. And has known about Eugene posing as someone else for a long time. He then joins the rest of the crew and is last scene heading off to Titan.

I love this movie for various reasons and I might someday do a whole breakdown of why. But for now, why it makes me cry. It is the ending. As he says his last line:

Vincent (as Eugene): “For someone who was never meant for this world, I must confess, I’m suddenly having a hard time leaving it. Of course, they say every atom in our bodies was once a part of a star. Maybe I'm not leaving; maybe I'm going home.”

I tear up every time. The first time I don’t think I even knew why because I didn’t grasp the full film. That took a second viewing and a little research. There is the argument of how far are we willing to take science, there’s the issue on prejudice, and how limiting creating people in such a way can slow progress and ultimately affect our lives. How we would stop pushing ourselves. But for now let’s just leave it as an example of the underdog proving everyone wrong and rising to a position that no one believed they could make it to.

Anton: “Vincent! How are you doing this Vincent? How have you done any of this? We have to go back.” Vincent: “It’s too late for that. We’re closer to the other side.” Anton: “What other side? You wanna drown us both?” Vincent: “You wanna know how I did it? This is how I did it Anton: I never saved anything for the swim back.”

And then there’s this moment with his love interest, Irene:

Vincent: “My name is Vincent, all right? Vincent Anton Freeman, and I'm a "faith birth" or a "de-gene-erate", whatever you want to call it; but I am NOT a murderer!” Irene: “You're a "God-child"?” Vincent: “But we do have one thing in common, only I don't have twenty or thirty years left in mine. Mine is already ten thousand beats overdue.” Irene: “It's not possible.” Vincent: “You are the authority on what is not possible, aren't you Irene? They've got you looking for any flaw, that after a while that's all you see. For what it's worth, I'm here to tell you that it is possible. It is possible.”

--The Possibility of Fireflies by Dominique Paul “It’s 1987 and fourteen-year-old Ellie Roma doesn’t have much of a family. She lives with her mother, who has taken a break from parenting; and her older sister, Gwen, who is on her way to becoming a juvenile delinquent. Her father left them to start a new life. So Ellie spends a lot of time alone, especially at night, when all she has to keep her company are the fireflies that flicker in the summer air. Then one day a mysterious stranger enters her dark world. He is Leo, twenty-one, who is on his way to Hollywood to become a rock star. Ellie and Leo connect instantly, and Ellie hopes Leo will be the one to rescue her from her unhappy life. But instead, Leo teaches Ellie that no one can save you. You have to go after what you want. So one night - one terrible, frightening night - that’s exactly what Ellie decides to do.”

I loved this book. I read it at least three or four times when I was in middle school. Partly it was because I could relate to Ellie really well. My parents got divorced when I was nine and although I didn’t have abusive parents, the woman my dad got remarried to did do a lot of emotional and mental abuse to my older sister and myself. And those first several years of the divorce it was pretty rough. I’ve blocked a lot of it out and I try my best not to think about it but every now and then those memories like to attack. Due to the strong connection I felt toward Ellie and my own history, I have cried every time I have read this book.

Why it makes me cry. There are plenty of sad moments throughout this book but what makes me cry every time is the ending. Near the end Ellie’s older sister decides to run away with her friend. Ellie doesn’t really want to stay there with her mother alone so she runs across the street and asks to leave with her new neighbor friend. Who turns down her offer but does give her a ride and some money to get on a bus. She decides to go to her dads house and thinks of everything they’ll do together. But when she arrives no one is home and there aren’t even any fireflies for her to watch. As she starts to wonder if he even still lives there and would even want to see her, a car pulls up. It is her father and he leads her inside and shows her a bed (or was it a couch? It’s been a while since I last read it) so she can get some sleep. He tells her goodnight and leaves a house key for her on the table.

--Yu Yu Hakusho “From cutting classes to brawling in the streets, Yusuke Urameshi is not your typical role model. In fact, this kid's nothing more than a fourteen-year-old delinquent with a talent for trouble. But in a single selfless act Yusuke dies while saving another. For such noble sacrifice he is given a second chance at life, but it's to be a life far different than the one left behind. Now a Spirit Detective, the young man must track down demons and humans alike who desire to rule over the three realms of reality.”

Episode 1: “Surprised to be Dead” Yusuke’s funeral. The first time I saw Yu Yu Hakusho was during my early anime years. So I was very unprepared for someone to actually die in their show. No other anime I was watching at the time had any deaths yet, least of all it the main character.

If you’ve never seen this classic series Yusuke is a delinquent. He skips school, starts fights, all that. And yet he stops to save a child who was almost hit by a car and dies in the process. The shinigami who breaks the news to him, Botan, takes him to his funeral. Yusuke expects to see everyone laughing and being glad that he’s dead. Including his mother, his rival, classmates. Only to find his mother and his childhood friend, Keiko, crying. Then comes in his rival, his principal, and the boy he saved. And then I’m an emotional wreck.

Komada: "Come on, let's go back! This isn't right!" Kuwabara: “Shut up! Let go of me, wouldja?" Yusuke (floating over everyone’s heads): “What? Kuwabara [his rival]?!” Kuwabara (enters Yusuke’s apartment): "Damn you! You think you can just back out 'cause you're scared!" Okubo: "Kuwabara, this place is for mourning!" Kuwabara: "I'm not gonna leave! Not until he comes out here and lets me fight him!" Okubo: “He can’t do that!” Kuwabara: "I'm gonna beat you down, you punk! You hear me? Who do you think you are, huh? Dirty punk! Who am I gonna fight now? Who am I gonna fight?" Okubo: “He’s gone!” Kuwabara: “No! You’re supposed to be here...for me.” [and thus this bromance was born]

Takenaka: "At first I was so surprised, Yusuke...to hear you'd saved a kid at the cost of your own life. You've always acted more selfishly than that. Darn. Yusuke, I don't know why I don't feel like speaking well of you. [begins to cry] Why didn't you stay? You could have made something great out of yourself!"

Little Boy (the one Yusuke saved): "Mommy, do you think it'd be okay if I played with that boy tomorrow, if I'm good?" Mother: "No, son." Little Boy: "I know some people sounded angry at him, but he's really nice. He made really funny faces at me too, and he got me my ball! I don't know why those people were crying like that. It was probably because they wanted to play with him, too."

I think this was the first anime that ever made me cry. Yusuke thinks everyone hates him, would probably be better off if he wasn’t around, and then finds out that isn’t the case (a bit of It’s a Wonderful Life moment). It was a very sad scene and gets me every time.

#must read #must watch #books #Book Recommendations #anime #manga #cowboy bebop #futurama #Gattaca #yu yu hakusho #yusuke urameshi #the possibilities of fireflies #dominique paul #it's gonna make you cry

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fire-bear · 7 years

Text

Mirror Mirror

Warnings: Maybe OOC Francis for certain reasons.

Arthur's sudden success meant that he could now afford to buy a large house in order to store his massive collection of books while also being able to move around without having to continually shift piles of them. It had four bedrooms, one of which he set aside for Peter, and had enough other rooms that Arthur was able to work in one, read in another and sit in yet another to watch TV.

He decorated it himself, using block colours for the rooms he would entertain visitors. The kitchen was kept simplistic, mainly because it wasn't a room he liked to spend time in. Peter was allowed to choose how to decorate and they had had some fun splashing messy polkadots on the walls. For the rest of them, Arthur had asked a friend to kindly draw out some of his favourite scenes from his favourite books. It made his hallway, his bedroom, his study and his private lounges into a sort of mural of dramatic figures fighting evil or falling in love.

After weeks of decorating in his free time, there was only one room to figure out what to do with. Arthur stood in the blank room, the walls a horrible beige from the previous owners. There was nothing in it and Arthur couldn't think of anything beyond using it as yet another bedroom. Just as he was about to give up his musing for the day, the doorbell rang and he hurried down the stairs, glad for the distraction.

His mother threw her arms around him as soon as he opened the door. He hugged her back, despite his surprise. "Mum?" he said. "What are you doing here?"

"Don't you want me to visit?" she asked with a pout.

"No," Arthur replied. "I just wasn't expecting you." He peered around her, looking for Peter who usually came with her. Instead, he spotted her red Range Rover, filled to the brim with boxes and something large and metal. "What on-?"

"Peter told me that you've got a spare room at the moment. I'm doing a clear-out and I thought you could use it to store the things we're selling at the next car boot sale until it's time for it." She gave Arthur a pleading look and he could only sigh in response.

"All right," he agreed. "I suppose it gives me more time to figure out what I'm going to do with it."

They began the arduous task of hauling several boxes up two flights of stairs. At first, they stacked them around the outside of the room but it wasn't long until they were taking up the centre of the room. Eventually, his mother stopped him from using up all the space. "We need to put the mirror in here before anything else," she told him. "Otherwise we won't have anywhere to put it."

"Ah, yes, about that," Arthur said as he followed her down the stairs once again. He had already seen the full-length mirror when they had begun emptying the car. It was a great hulking thing he was not aware his parents had owned. "Where did you get that?"

"You know," his mother said, "I'm not entirely sure. I found it in the attic – I think it's been there longer than we have."

"It's rather ornate, though. Surely it would have cost more than the cost of living there for a month? Why would anyone leave it behind?"

Shrugging, his mother stepped out of the front door. "I really have no idea but we obviously don't need it so out it goes! Now, hurry up! I'm meeting a friend for lunch in an hour and we've still got more to take upstairs." She marched over to the car and took hold of one end of the mirror.

Arthur gave up on his questioning. Nothing ever came between his mother and meeting up with her friends. He quickly moved over to help her and vaguely hoped they wouldn't break the thing trying to get it out of the car.

Later, once his mum had left, Arthur made himself a cup of tea and collapsed onto his favourite couch. He still wasn't sure how the mirror had fit in the car in the first place as it had taken a lot of wiggling and frustration for them to remove it. Then they'd had to take it up to the room. They'd left a path amongst the boxes leading to it and around them so they could find anything if they needed it. Arthur hoped he wouldn't be sent to search for something his father actually wanted to keep.

Thinking about the mirror made him frown. Their house hadn't exactly been small but it hadn't been big enough to warrant the kind of luxury the mirror offered. Especially not when the previous owners consisted of a family as large as their own and a little old lady with all her cats. If neither of his parents had bought it then he couldn't see who else would have left it there. And, in all of his exploring of the attic, he'd never noticed it. Then again, he had stayed away from a particularly rickety set of boxes after one had fallen from the top while he was there. It had terrified him enough that he avoided the corner. Maybe the mirror had been hidden there.

Curious, Arthur finished his tea and returned to the room. He frowned around at it, annoyed that it was so cluttered. That had been exactly why he had gotten such a big house, so this wouldn't be a problem. Sidling in, he walked up to the mirror and surveyed it.

The mirror was a foot taller than Arthur, with elegant metal framing it. From a point above him, the metal swirled out in curls and swept down around the glass until it clumped together at the bottom to make the heavy 'feet'. It was covered in a thin layer of dust, as if it had been left standing for a while before it had been covered up. Arthur stepped forwards and wiped away enough for him to see his own face. His puzzled frown stared back at him.

Thinking on one of his favourite books, he used his sleeve to wipe away the rest of the dust and stared at it, wondering what he would see in the Mirror of Erised had this been it. Of course, nothing happened and he laughed at himself. Putting his hands on his hips, he declared, "Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who is the fairest – prince – of them all?"

"Not you, clearly," said a voice in the same instant the mirror turned dark and revealed a face.

Startled, Arthur screamed and stumbled away, tripping on a box and falling to the floor. He stared up at the mirror which now revealed the face of a man with long hair and stubble. Unfortunately, the face was entirely blue so Arthur couldn't pick out any other features. The man's face was smiling in amusement – and relief, Arthur thought.

"Y-You- What?" Arthur stuttered, trying to work out what was going on.

"Hello," said the face. "My name is Francis and-"

"No," Arthur said, scrambling to his feet, heart thumping. "No. This... This is a dream. Or a hallucination." He turned his back on the mirror. "This isn't real. It's not- It's just my imagination. I better write it down before I forget – I could use this." And he fled the room, carefully not listening to the shouts coming from the mirror.

Arthur spent the rest of the day thinking about the mirror.

It hadn't been a dream: he hadn't awoken in his bed or on the couch. And he hadn't taken anything that would cause him to hallucinate. And he had never imagined something happening in such a vivid scene. There were only two other options: it had been some sort of computerised projection – which he knew was pretty much impossible with how flat the mirror was – or there had really been a magic face in the mirror.

When you have eliminated the possible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.

That didn't mean that Arthur was going to do any more investigating. He would leave well enough alone. Nothing would make him go back into the room. So he went about the rest of his plans for the day before retiring to bed.

In the morning, he went back upstairs after eating breakfast to cautiously enter the room. Everything was still. The mirror was innocuous and reflected the room in the dim light from the window. Arthur flicked the light on and circled the thing, checking for anything that could be used to project a face onto the mirror. When he found nothing, he returned to stand in front of the mirror.

Nothing happened.

Biting his lip, Arthur cast his mind back to the day before. He sighed. "Mirror, mirror," he mumbled, "on the wall, who is the fairest prince of them all?"

Nothing happened.

Arthur sighed in relief when a thought occurred to him. He chewed on his lip for a moment, arms folded and finger tapping as he tried to come to a decision. Eventually, he braced himself and said, "Francis?"

"Yes?" said the voice from before and the face reappeared, eyebrow raised.

Despite being prepared for it, Arthur still flinched at his appearance. He took a quick, deep breath and stared at the face. "You... You're a mirror," he said, weakly.

"I hadn't noticed," the mirror replied, dryly.

"But- I just- What on Earth is going on?"

"I'm a magic mirror," Francis explained. "I can show you things, if you ask in the proper way. And I can provide information and conversation, should you wish."

"Does that include how you came to be?"

"I can only tell you what I remember and I don't remember my creation. I just was and now I am."

"You think therefore you are, huh?" Arthur murmured.

"More or less," Francis agreed. "Now, how may I serve?"

Arthur shook his head. "I don't have anyone I want to see. It's not as if there's a princess I want to make disappear."

Francis sighed. "My original owner did take that a little too far."

Blinking, Arthur gaped at him. "Snow White is real?!" he exclaimed.

"Well, yes. Of course it is."

"But- How-? Which country was she the princess of?"

"She was the daughter of Philip IV of Waldeck. Her stepmother forced her to move to Brussels."

"Wait. Wait a minute. Where the heck is 'Waldeck'?" asked Arthur.

"It's now part of Germany. At the time, it was part of the Holy Roman Empire."

"And her mother... created you?"

"Maybe. She used me to watch over her and she soon discovered that Margarete had fallen in love with a prince – a Spanish prince, before you ask."

"And then she tried to kill her," Arthur said, frowning a little.

"She succeeded. Eventually."

"Really?"

"Yes." There was a brief pause as Arthur marvelled at the information. Then Francis cleared his throat – or, at least, made a noise as if he was. "Now, who would you like to see?"

"I told you," said Arthur with a click of his tongue, "I don't have a princess to stalk."

"What about princes?" Francis asked, smirking a little.

Arthur's eyes narrowed. "I don't want to see anyone."

Francis hummed. "Well, in that case, I'll go see what the world is like now – I've missed a fair bit being covered like that."

"Didn't that protect you from getting... well... dusty?"

"It also stopped me from freely exploring the world as I did in the centuries beforehand," Francis explained. "I'd like to know what's happened out there."

"You could ask me?" Arthur suggested.

"No, thank you," Francis said, primly. "All humans have a limited amount of knowledge so I'll do it myself, thank you. If you need me, just call on me like before and I'll be here in an instant."

"If you're sure..." said Arthur, slowly.

The face in the mirror disappeared without further ado. Arthur stared at it and wondered just how much power it held. What on Earth was he going to do with it?

Deciding to leave Francis to do whatever magical thing he did, Arthur went back to his life. He wrote another novel, a magic mirror featuring in it heavily. Why not, he had thought. His kitchen became a haven of amateurish cakes for a bake sale one week and the next he was helping his little brother make a costume for a fancy dress party. As the months passed by, Arthur almost forgot about Francis, only remembering when he mused about the room, wondering when his mum was going to take the rest of the boxes away.

While he happily continued with everything he had been doing before, his parents' home life became strained. A previous affair while Arthur's mother had been travelling for work came to light and, suddenly, Arthur had another brother. Despite being shocked and dismayed upon hearing the news of his father's infidelity, Arthur quite liked the teenager who had appeared. His mother, however, was livid. For weeks on end, he heard about the loud arguments from Peter who seemed to be getting more upset every time he called Arthur. Not knowing what else to say, he told Peter that they'd stop soon.

They didn't.

One day, three months after he had last talked to Francis, Arthur came home from a shopping trip just as the sun was setting. His mobile was ringing as he tried to manoeuvre himself inside without dropping anything. Ignoring it, he kicked his front door closed and shuffled to the kitchen. It was when his home phone started ringing that he paused and frowned. Hurriedly setting the carrier bags down on the island, Arthur darted through to his main living room and grabbed the handset there.

"Hello?" he said.

"Arthur!" his mother cried, sounding frantic. "Is Peter with you?"

"What? No. I'm not watching him till the weekend. Am I?"

"Oh, no," Mrs. Kirkland breathed. "He... He left a note in his room."

"What?" Arthur repeated, eyes widening, his mind flying to all sorts of nightmare scenarios.

"He's run away. Packed a few of his things, some food is missing from the kitchen and he's... He's just gone!"

"Have you called the police?" Arthur asked quickly, already preparing himself to go back out.

"Yes, of course. I just-"

"It's okay, Mum. We'll all come help. Even Patrick will, if you let him know."

There was a short silence. "We... We were arguing about him again," his mother admitted.

Arthur bit his lip. Peter had sounded miserable when he had spoken to him yesterday about that very same thing. "Have you checked his usual hiding spots?" he asked, thinking desperately for somewhere his brother would flee to.

"Yes," his mother replied, beginning to sound frustrated. "He's not in the tree house or down by the stream or in your fairy clearing. And I can't think of anywhere else he could be. It's getting dark, Arthur, what am I-?"

"I'll be there soon, Mum. We'll find him. I promise."

Although it didn't sound as if she believed him, they said their goodbyes and hung up. Then Arthur rushed back into the hall. He caught sight of his shopping out of the corner of his eye and paused. Some of the things in the bags would spoil if he didn't put them away – including the ice cream he'd bought for Peter. Making a quick decision, he hurried into the kitchen and, instead of emptying the bags, shoved the ones with all the refrigerated items into his fridge and the frozen ones into the freezer. As he shut the freezer, he caught sight of his reflection in the sleek, shiny metal of the door. He paused, a thought occurring to him.

With a sharp breath, Arthur spun on his heel and raced to the room with the mirror, throwing the door open with such force that it rebounded off a set of boxes and hit his elbow as he walked in. He almost walked into it in his haste and he wiped off as much dust as he could in one sweep of his arm. Then he stepped back and said, "Francis?" When nothing happened, he scowled and said, "Mirror, mirror, on the wall, where is my baby brother?"

"Which one?" Francis replied as his face appeared with a pleasant expression. It fell into concern when he spotted how agitated Arthur looked. "What's wrong?"

"Peter ran away," Arthur told him. "Please, it's getting dark – help me find him."

"Of course. This is a far better use of my powers than hunting princesses."

Francis's face suddenly disappeared, replaced with an image so clear it was as though Arthur could step through the frame of the mirror and be standing right in front of his brother. Peter was curled up at the base of a tree, crying. He had one of his legs bent awkwardly, as if it was too painful to hug to his chest. Beyond him, through the trees, Arthur could see the sun setting, glinting off windows in the distant houses. It was also glinting off a set of familiar windchimes, the little fairy dancing in a slight breeze.

"But... my mother checked there. Is this where he is right now?" Arthur asked, confused.

The image disappeared, startling Arthur into crying out, worried now. Francis's face took his brother's place. "He got distracted while he was running away and ended up going in a circle. When he saw his mother looking for him, he was scared he'd get into trouble so he hid. But he slipped on some leaves and fell, hurting his ankle. Or so the fairies tell me."

"Wait. There are really fairies there?" Arthur asked, his eyes widening.

"Yes. Didn't you think that would be the case when you met me?" Francis seemed amused.

Arthur was about to ask more when he remembered what he'd come to Francis for. "Peter's hurt?"

"I think it's just a sprained ankle but I'm not a doctor," Francis said and Arthur could imagine him shrugging.

"I have to help him!" Arthur declared.

"Be careful," said Francis with a small smile.

Nodding absently, Arthur spun on his heel and hurried off, not bothering to stop to close the door properly.

A few hours later saw Arthur return. He had driven to his parents' house and insisted they checked the places they'd tried before. This time, with Arthur and his knowledge, they found the terrified Peter. There had been tears, both on his mother's and his brother's behalf who cried even more when they went to hospital and found that his ankle was, indeed, sprained. Once everyone had been settled, Arthur had been provided dinner and his parents had promised to have a quiet discussion over their problems while Patrick (who was the only other brother to respond in time to be involved in the drama) helped Peter to bed.

The house was quiet as he entered and he winced at the sudden lonely feeling that permeated the place after the noise and chaos of being with family. Maybe he should get a pet of some sort, he absently thought. Then he remembered the mirror who had helped him and he made his way up.

Opening the door wider and much calmer than earlier, he strode into the room. "Francis?" he said as he stopped in front of it, surveying his scruffy appearance. Annoyed that no-one had mentioned it, Arthur pulled a twig from his hair and brushed a leaf to the floor. "Francis. Come on, you stupid mirror." He brushed down his clothes which had burrs attached to them. "Are you really going to make me say it?" When he got no answer to that, either, Arthur sighed and recited what must, he realised, be the activation spell. "Mirror, mirror, on the wall, will you get out here?"

"What's wrong?" Francis asked as he appeared, raising an eyebrow.

"Nothing. I just wanted to talk to you," Arthur replied. He stopped there, however, when he noted how surprised Francis looked.

"You did?"

"Well, yes," Arthur assured him. "I wanted to thank you for helping me find my brother."

"That's what I was created for."

"I know. But still: thank you." Arthur paused then, thinking. "Is... Is there anything I can do for you in return?"

Francis blinked at him. "Well. Only... Could you remove this frame? It feels horrid, encasing me like this."

"Er." Arthur stared at it. "You don't like it?"

"As the spell suggests, I am meant to be hung on the wall."

"Do you really want to be stuck to a wall for the rest of your-?" Arthur broke off, unsure if a magic mirror technically had a life. "Are you sure about this?"

"Yes."

Arthur considered how annoyed his mother would be when she found out what he'd done to the mirror. He reminded himself that she'd essentially given him the thing when she'd made him take it so he could do what he wanted with it. "Then I'll find someone to help you in the morning."

"Thank you." Francis sighed. "One of my previous owners wanted to take me with them. It was a rather horrible experience."

"I'll bet," said Arthur, rather bemused. "Is there anywhere in particular you'd like to be hung?"

Francis paused at that before glancing to the side. "Well... In your room? If you don't mind."

Surprised, Arthur asked, "Why?"

Briefly, Francis smirked at Arthur and his eyes widened, ready to protest and argue with a semi-animate object. Then the smirk morphed into a fond smile. "I have the feeling I'll be happiest there," Francis admitted

"Oh," said Arthur, his cheeks heating up even though he wasn't quite sure what that meant. He turned his head and coughed into his fist. "Well. All right. We'll see to that in the morning. So, um... Goodnight."

"Goodnight, Arthur. Sleep well."

The thing about Snow White is real, by the way.

Also, I see this going one of two ways: a psychological horror where Arthur is convinced by Francis to find someone to fall in love with and then he ends up watching, say, Alfred or someone far too much to be healthy and going insane; Arthur falls in love with Francis and so keeps him as he grows older and older till he dies.

In either case, Arthur dies. =/

Also, I was going to originally write something about mirror universes with Arthur and Francis being their mirror selves but then I had the inspiration for this while I was writing the first part and decided on this instead.

#frukspringfestival2k17 #Day 3 #hetalia #fan fiction #fruk

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my-house-of-fashion · 4 years

Text

"I don't want my pictures to tell people what they should think" says Alastair Philip Wiper

https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2020/03/alastair-philip-wiper-photography-unintended-beauty_dezeen_2364_sq_c-852x852.jpg

British photographer Alastair Philip Wiper explores all kinds of factories, from pork slaughterhouses to sex doll workshops. He says he isn’t trying to shock or influence, just to show people where things come from.

Wiper photographs the facilities that make mass production possible. His images show the machines, the people and the processes used to manufacture the objects of our modern society.

But the Copenhagen-based photographer’s aim is not to make people change their behaviour. He simply wants to reveal a world that the vast majority of people never see.

Alastair Philip Wiper photographs industrial infrastructure, from factories to power stations

“I don’t want my pictures to tell people what they should think and how they should feel,” he told Dezeen.

“I just want them to look and have their own thoughts.”

Scale of consumption

In his new book, Unintended Beauty, Wiper shares images from the factories of Adidas, Playmobil, Bang & Olufsen and more. He also shows power stations and scientific research facilities, along with a dairy farm and a cannabis greenhouse.

The venues he selects tend to be provocative, for instance, the Danish Crown slaughterhouse in Horsens. Wiper prompted an outcry from Dezeen readers after visiting this pork factory, with many shocked by the graphic nature of his photos.

Wiper’s provocative images include the Danish Crown slaughterhouse in Horsens

What was more shocking, according to Wiper, was not the process itself but the scale on which it took place. By revealing it, he hoped to make people think about where their food comes from.

“The overwhelming feeling that I come away with, that is constantly going on in my head, is whether we need this much stuff. Do we need this many shoes or this much pork?” he said.

“The world has been ramped up to a point where everybody thought that this ‘more, more, more’ was good, and suddenly we’re realising we don’t need it.”

Products of our imagination

Wiper says that, even though he has explored factories all around the world, he often encounters things he has never seen before.

On a recent visit to a condom-making facility in Denmark, he was stunned to find it in the back of a cheese factory. He also discovered handmade machines built several decades ago, still in good working order.

The photographer has also visited a medicinal cannabis greenhouse

These places tell a story of human ingenuity that may be unfamiliar to people used to city life, claims Wiper, but which is fundamental to the world we live in.

“These places are all products of our imagination,” he said. They’re representing what we want and what we can do as human beings. Even when there aren’t people in the pictures, they’re all the products of our minds.”

“There is a lot of humanity in that for me,” he added.

“How do we get people to think differently?”

The photographer tries not to form good or bad opinions of of the places he visits.

While he wants to people to recognise the impact of consumption, he is also concerned about the infrastructures that depend on these factories. Not only are they making the objects we buy, they also provide jobs to entire towns.

Scientific facilities he has photographed include CERN, home of the Large Hadron Colider

“There are parts of the world that were once very poor, but now have a much better quality of life because of these factories,” he added.

“Yes, the overall impact is something that we have to reduce. How do we do that without impacting these communities? How do we get people to think differently about the way that they consume? These are such complicated questions.”

Unintended Beauty is published by Hatje Cantz. Wiper’s photographs are also on show at the RIBA in London, as part of the exhibition Forms of Industry, open until 16 May 2020.

Read on for the interview in full:

Amy Frearson: How did you end up in this niche area of photography?

Alastair Philip Wiper: I studied philosophy and politics at university, but when I finished I had no idea what to do with my life. I met a Danish girl, moved to Denmark, and got a job in a restaurant, but I didn’t want to be a cook. Then I started to make some T-shirts, just for fun, and taught myself to use Illustrator, which helped me I get a job as a graphic designer. I was working for an artist and fashion designer who also didn’t have a in-house photographer so then I started taking pictures too. I taught myself and fell into it.

I decided I wanted to become a photographer, but I didn’t want to be a fashion photographer or a portrait photographer. It felt very repetitive. Then I saw some work by some older photographers work in the 50s and 60s. In particular, Wolfgang Sievers and Maurice Broomfield, who were photographing big oil refineries. This was totally fascinating to me. I could see myself going to see the most amazing things, shapes and graphics.

You’ve got to be really fascinated by the thing you’re working with

I went into this niche of industry and science, and pretty quickly I learned that the things I was experiencing and seeing were more important than getting a pay cheque. I think that’s the key to photography or any job really; if you want to do it really well, you’ve got to be really fascinated by the thing you’re working with. I wasn’t interested in science or art particularly, but it can be nice to come at these things with a new energy. You look at everything with different eyes compared to somebody that has been in that world their whole life.

Amy Frearson: Can you tell me about some of your first experiences of photographing factories and infrastructure?

Alastair Philip Wiper: There are two that stand out. One of them is the Odeillo Solar Furnace. In the beginning I didn’t know how to get in anywhere, so I had to find places where I could just turn up. I saw a picture of this building online in an article called “the 10 strangest buildings in the world” or something like that. I camped outside for two days, just watching the light changing on the mirrors. It was a kind of pilgrimage.

Then there is CERN, which is a place I’ve been back to three or four times. The first time I booked myself on a public tour, where you don’t see anything. So I asked the PR office to show me more, and they put me on a trip with an engineer to see some real things. That was a lucky break. I don’t know if they would do that these days.

One of Wiper’s first photography series features the Odeillo Solar Furnace in France

Amy Frearson: I presume getting access to these places is the biggest challenge?

Alastair Philip Wiper: After I got into CERN, I had a couple of other lucky breaks so that suddenly I had a portfolio that was starting to show that I could get inside places. But getting access is always the hardest, especially in the beginning. I have to talk my way in. These days I know the job position of the person I need to find, but in the beginning I had no idea. I thought a caretaker might sometimes let me in the back door, but that never happened.

Amy Frearson: One of your best-known photography series shows inside of the Danish Crown pork slaughterhouse in Horsens. It had a huge reaction from Dezeen readers. Why did you choose to photograph this type of factory?

Alastair Philip Wiper: I do a lot of self-initiated projects and I’m always looking around, thinking about the everyday objects that I consume. I want to know what factory they come from and how I can get in there.

Pork was an obvious one because I live in Denmark, and there’s a lot of pork consumed in Denmark and exported as well. I’m very interested in these kind of taboo subjects. I like things when things we interact with physically are a little bit controversial, when they have a macabre side or a dark humour. I maybe wasn’t thinking about that before I went but after I came out there was something dark about the whole thing that I just found attractive.

At the time I was quite into eating meat. I had been vegetarian when I was a teenager but I stopped because I really enjoyed food. My love of cooking and eating became more important to me than being vegetarian. But it made me feel like I needed to understand what I was eating and where it came from.

Amy Frearson: Did the experience shock you?

Alastair Philip Wiper: The process of seeing pigs going in and being slaughtered wasn’t particularly shocking, because of course I knew what needed to happen to get the bacon to my table and I felt quite strongly that people that ate meat should understand this. If you’re going to eat meat, you should be comfortable with that process and if you’re not comfortable then you probably shouldn’t eat meat.

If you’re going to eat meat, you should be comfortable with that process

The shocking thing for me about the slaughterhouse wasn’t that pigs go in there and get killed, that they have their guts taken out, chopped up and sold to be eaten. That wasn’t shocking to me. It was the volume, the scale, which was amazing.

I don’t want my pictures to tell people what they should think and how they should feel. I just want them to look and have their own thoughts.

Wiper visted South Korea to see a container ship under construction

Since then my attitude has changed a little, in that I’ve become more aware of the impact of meat on the environment. I didn’t think we needed to be eating as much meat. I still enjoy meat but I eat less meat. I only have it on special occasions.

For me the question is, do we need to consume as much? I think you can say that about pretty much everything we consume. As long as there’s a demand for it, there’s going to be places that are killing hundreds of thousands of pigs a week.

Amy Frearson: What other things shock or surprise you in the spaces you photograph?

Alastair Philip Wiper: When I first started going to these places, every place was incredible. I really liked seeing tangles of pipes and wires, that kind of thing. I need to see a really good tangle of pipes and wires to be impressed these days! But I still get really happy when I see things I haven’t seen before. I’ve seen a lot of places and I find similarities in all of them, but I also see things that I’ve never seen before pretty regularly.

Recently I was at a condom factory in the countryside in Denmark. I had been been looking for a condom factory to photograph and thought I would have to go to Germany, but a friend told me there was a condom factory in Denmark. I asked them if I could come and photograph it and they said yes, sure, but told me it wasn’t very big and it was very old.

It turned out to be a small room in a corner of a cheese factory. The cheese factory was owned by a company that has a few businesses, that buys businesses when they can see that there’s good value in it, no matter what it is. The condom factory had actually existed since the 1950s I think and the machines were homemade. At the time they had asked their engineer for a solution for condom packing, so he built one out of wood and put a motor on it. It still works and that’s probably the reason that this company is still profitable. If that machine broke, they would have to buy a new one and then suddenly, maybe it’s not worth it. This is pure conjecture, but this is how my imagination works.

They also had machines that blow up condoms, to test how much air can go in there, and a machine that is like a dildo, that takes it on and off hundreds of thousands to see if it breaks.

Most of the time I see people that are happy, just living a different life to the one that I do

I love the contrast between CERN, where the greatest minds in the world are trying to answer the biggest questions of the universe, the greatest machines human beings have ever seen, and then in my backyard I can find a condom factory that is equally as fascinating.

Amy Frearson: Do you think people are generally unaware that so much construction and industry goes on in the countryside? Is that something you hope to reveal in your pictures?

Alastair Philip Wiper: It’s not something I’ve thought about that much. I don’t differentiate between the countryside and the city. But of course I’m in factories a lot and the world I come from doesn’t see what happens in these places. While I feel like there is a big split between the communities that live in these towns and our cosmopolitan, big-city life, I don’t think I have ever seen anything terrible or been to a factory where people seem unhappy.

People that live in our world have this assumption that it’s horrible work and a horrible life in these places, but most of the time I see people that are happy, just living a different life to the one that I do. But it’s definitely a world that I wouldn’t get to see if I didn’t go to visit these places.

Factories he has photographed include Kvadrat Febrik‘s Innofa textile mill in the Netherlands

Amy Frearson: Have you ever photographed anywhere that made you think differently about a product you consume?

Alastair Philip Wiper: I’m not an investigative journalist or photographer. I’m not trying to show the good or bad side of these places, and I’m usually doing it with the approval of the company that owns the factory. I’m not trying to uncover things. It is also really hard to go into a place for a day and come away with a valid opinion of what is right and wrong. There can be things that are maybe a little bit shocking to us, when actually there’s nothing wrong with them, or there can be things that look totally fine, but actually are really bad. I try to be careful when I form opinions, but it’s not really what I’m trying to do.

The overwhelming feeling that I come away with, that is constantly going on in my head, is whether we need this much stuff. Do we need this many shoes or this much pork? The world has been ramped up to a point where everybody thought that this ‘more, more, more’ was good, and suddenly we’re realising we don’t need it. But communities are surviving on these factories. There are parts of the world that were once very poor, but now have a much better quality of life because of these factories. Yes, the overall impact is something that we have to reduce. How do we do that without impacting these communities? How do we get people to think differently about the way that they consume?

I hope that anybody would find it interesting to see the way that things are made

These are such complicated questions. I’m confused, I don’t know. Maybe that’s why I’m trying not to say anything with my pictures, to tell people how to think. It’s a discussion they can have with themselves. I’m thinking everyday about the way I consume, and how that impacts the world, in a way that I didn’t three years ago. It’s going to take a while to trickle down to everybody, but hopefully it will happen.

Amy Frearson: With your work now on show at the RIBA, do you think there are lessons for architects in your pictures?

Alastair Philip Wiper: I hope there is, but to be honest I know very little about architecture. I hope that anybody would find it interesting to see the way that things are made. Throughout history people have found creative inspiration through things that are made for practical purposes. I don’t think I’m doing anything new there.

Amy Frearson: Can you tell me more about the technical side of your process? What is your process of shooting and editing, and what equipment do you use?

Alastair Philip Wiper: I use a DSLR camera mostly. I shoot medium format sometimes, but I can’t always afford to shoot on medium format, because I need to work super fast and I beat my equipment up a lot. Normally I work very quickly, so I drop lenses and cameras! My most important tools, apart from the camera, are my tripod and wireless shutter release.

I don’t edit a lot. I try to give the pictures my look, by playing with the contrast and the colour, and I adjust the perspective, I don’t have any problem with removing something in the picture that I don’t like, like a bin, but I don’t do that very often, unless I need to. I try to keep everything as simple as possible. The less decisions I have to make, the better. If I do something, it’s only because I think it’s going to add to the picture. It’s not for the sake of doing it.

Amy Frearson: When you say you give the pictures ‘your look’, how would you describe that look?

Alastair Philip Wiper: I want to have a lot of clarity. It shouldn’t feel like it has a filter or a colour cast, it should be very neutral in tone and as sharp as I can get it. It should also be very colourful and bright. I don’t want to make unsaturated, subtle pictures, I want them to be bold, colourful and in your face.

The photographer has also shot the Absolut Vodka Distillery in Sweden

Amy Frearson: Does your approach change when you’re shooting for a commercial client, rather than just for yourself?

Alastair Philip Wiper: I never really change the way I shoot. I approach every subject in exactly the same way and I am very rarely asked to do anything else. I feel really lucky to have that.

Amy Frearson: How important is it to you to show the people that work in these factories, as well as the machinery and objects?

Alastair Philip Wiper: I think this subject can become a bit too clean, too cold, too paralysed. I want there to be to be humour and passion in there, because these places are all products of our imagination. They’re representing what we want and what we can do as human beings. Even when there aren’t people in the pictures, they’re all the products of our minds. There is a lot of humanity in that for me. That’s why I want the pictures to be bold and colourful and a little bit dirty. They don’t have to be too permanent and clean. There are interesting stories in all of these places.

Stories, humanity, humour and eccentricity are all my inspirations for doing this. I’m just blown away that people make all this stuff, that they build machines to build machines. It’s crazy.

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